Cong recalls Jaitley, Gadkari's comments on judges' jobs after retirement
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New Delhi: Describing the Narendra Modi government as a "government of U-turns", the Congress Wednesday questioned the decision to appoint former Chief Justice of India P Sathasivam as Kerala governor while recalling BJP leaders Arun Jaitley and Nitin Gadkari's 2012 comments against judges getting post-retirement jobs.
The Congress has slammed the decision to give the gubernatorial post wondering if there is "anything in his persona, functioning or his decisions, which has really attracted very warmly, very positively, the acceptance of Prime Minister and BJP President".
Sathasivam was on the Supreme Court bench that scrapped a second FIR against Amit Shah in the fake case, saying it was linked to the bigger Sohrabuddin Sheikh killing case and did not need to be separate.
During the weekly briefing at the AICC here, Congress spokesperson Shobha Oza played clippings of a speech delivered by Jaitley and Gadkari in 2012.
Jaitley had then said that "There are two kinds of judges - those who know the law and those who know the Law Minister".
He had added that even though there is a retirement age, "judges are not willing to retire. Pre-retirement judgements are influenced by post-retirement jobs".
Gadkari suggested a two-year wait should be mandatory for judges after they retire and before they are appointed to judicial commissions or tribunals.
Commenting on this, Oza said, "so, this was the view of the two BJP leaders then".
The Congress spokesperson also took a dig at Modi completing 100 days in government saying that prices have gone up despite the BJP's election slogans against price rise.
Recalling Modi's remarks on corruption "Nor will I eat or let others eat", Oza quipped that the Prime Minister should now give out a list of items that people will not be allowed to eat because of high prices.
She also recalled a comment by a BJP leader on price rise when he said that not poor but those with "red cheeks" eat tomatoes.
"The price of tomatoes is even higher than petrol now," she said.
