BENGALURU: Former External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha on Sunday said all institutions of democracy in the country, like the Parliament, the Supreme Court, the Election Commission of India, media, investigating agencies like Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), National Investigating Agency (NIA), Income Tax department, Enforcement Directorate and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) are being subverted under the present regime.
Sinha, who was in Bengaluru on Sunday to deliver a talk on ‘Democracy — Threat to Constitution’, quit the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on April 21 after being disillusioned by the party’s activities at the Centre. “The events of the last four years have caused great anxiety. After working for this government, I realised we were replacing facts with fiction and peddling lies. We were subverting institutions of democracy and I tried raising it in the BJP. Nobody listened to me. Five weeks ago, I decided I will quit from party politics and not join any other party in the future,” Sinha said.
The 80-year-old, whose son Jayant Sinha is a BJP politician, went on to speak about how various institutions were compromised on different occasions in the country. “Parliament is the highest level of democracy. The last winter session in 2017 was severely curtailed because Gujarat elections were taking place. I’m not aware of any other example in history that is similar. This is a bad precedent,” he said.
The Modi government’s fifth and final budget of `89.25 lakh crore was passed in less than half an hour on March 14 this year. “What happens inside Parliament cannot be challenged even in a court of law. Do not dismiss these precedents. Unless you wake up, all democratic institutions will be subverted,” he warned.
He further added that the press conference held by the Supreme Court judges was unprecedented.
He said that nobody asked him about the Goods and Services Tax (GST) when he was in the Finance Ministry and that when PM Narendra Modi was the CM of Gujarat, he had vehemently opposed GST.
“The RBI was not consulted over demonetisation either. They were only told that this should be implemented,” he said.