Supreme Court must restrain political parties from using any lapse in Prime Minister’s security for election campaign
One Fair investigation into a politically contested incident always welcome. Earlier this month, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s convoy was stuck on the flyover near Firozpur Considering this a serious security lapse in Punjab for about 20 minutes, and keeping in mind the possibility of partisan interrogation, the Supreme Court Appointed its former judge, Justice Indu Malhotra, to lead the investigation., Other members of the inquiry committee include the DGP, Chandigarh, a senior official of the National Investigation Agency, Punjab’s Additional DGP (Security) and the Registrar-General of the Punjab and Haryana High Court. The court official has already obtained records related to the Prime Minister’s visit schedule on that day. There is a hope that the inquiry, which has been set up only at the behest of the central government or the state government to avoid unilateral questioning, will put to rest the raging political controversy. No one will disagree that once the matter is taken to the top court, only an inquiry of this nature will remove partisan politics, especially as an exploitable issue in elections to five state assemblies. Against the backdrop of the incident that emerged in The Central Government sought a reply within 24 hours to the show cause notice to the Punjab Chief Secretary and the DGP, which caused some displeasure by the Bench.
Both the governments ordered a preliminary inquiry has been placed on hold. However, there is something troubling in the manner in which a distinct lapse in Prime Minister’s security is being used to raise the political temperature and reap electoral dividends. It is unfortunate that attempts by the ruling BJP to pin the blame on the Punjab government, and the Congress which leads it, continue even after the Supreme Court appointed an independent committee to probe the incident. Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma made some indecent and inappropriate remarks on his Punjab counterpart Charanjit Singh Channi, demanding Mr Channi’s arrest and alleging conspiracy to kill the Prime Minister. It is clear that there is an attempt by key BJP functionaries to fabricate a divisive narrative, such as asking them to milk the issue as much as possible ahead of the assembly elections. The petition, to which a bench headed by Chief Justice of India, NV Ramana, agreed for an early hearing, seemed to be an exercise to put the Punjab government in the dock. However, the Supreme Court has managed to free the trial from its political color and preserve the scope of an impartial investigation. All would be well if the court took note of the attempts to use the incident for election campaigning and prevented political parties from making unnecessary statements.
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