Kapil Sibal is a Member of Parliament of the Rajya Sabha from Uttar Pradesh. He is also a senior lawyer and a veteran Congress leader. Sibal possesses the uncanny ability of changing his stance on issues from time to time depending on the circumstances at hand. This is not a new revelation but is a very relevant one considering his active participation in the failed impeachment motion forwarded by the Congress leaders on 20th April. It is surprising how Sibal chose to address the press conference considering he has in the past defended a Judge facing impeachment both in the Court and the media. A Twitter user revealed a video of Kapil Sibal in which he can be clearly seen challenging the process of impeachment of a Judge.
The Judge in question was V Ramaswami, a Supreme Court justice. In 1990, his extravagant expenditures of public funds had caused a scandal. Congress, the ruling party back then, had accepted the impeachment motion. The defending lawyer for Judge Ramaswami was none other than Kapil Sabil who was a Congress party leader. Judge Ramaswami had been appointed by the Congress and he was backed by the Congress for three reasons. Firstly, Ramaswami was a Congress appointed judge and he was sent to Chandigarh by Rajiv Gandhi to tackle terrorist cases. Secondly, Ramaswami’s son was a Congress MLA in Tamil Nadu and the last reason was that Sibal, who was defending his case, was also a Congress member.
The Congress leaders, after receiving instructions from the top, did not participate in the vote in the Lok Sabha. The 196 opposition MPs who voted in favour of the impeachment were less than half the strength of the house while the motion needed the support of at least two-thirds of the members present in order to succeed. For all the reasons and excuses, it was nothing more than a last ditch attempt to save face by the Congress.
A video shared by Anand Ranganathan shows Kapil Sibal talking about how the impeachment process being brought on by political parties is a farce. He talks about how the Judiciary should be free from the clutches of the political parties and especially the opposition. He mentions that whips and notices being issued by the political parties are not the proper way for a democracy to function. Kapil Sibal also speaks about how fifty or more MPs signing a petition could make a Judge guilty. The impeachment motion, according to Sibal in the video, should go through a national debate where its relevance would be judged.
Kapil Sibal now: We as opposition political parties have signatures of 50 MPs and therefore we forward the Impeachment motion.
Kapil Sibal then: This idea of opposition political parties collecting signatures of 50 MPs for forwarding an Impeachment motion is bullshit. pic.twitter.com/QO6kBS2INm
— Anand Ranganathan (@ARanganathan72) April 23, 2018
This video exposes the double standard of Kapil Sibal on an issue when they are in power as opposed to when they are not. This could also be taken as an example of the way almost all Congress leaders behave from time to time. This article should remind Sibal of the incidents which happened in the 1990s and his stance on the CJI impeachment issue today. It should serve as a reminder and as a lesson for the people of India as well about being on guard against such hypocrisy. The people should keep it in mind before the upcoming elections.