BENGALURU: The most sinister move adopted by the current government is to prepare dossiers with the help of intelligence agencies to influence the judiciary, claimed Prashant Bhushan, SC lawyer and activist, on Saturday.
“These dossiers contain all the information on the judges and their families and if they have done anything wrong. Based on that they can be blackmailed. If you get something on the Chief Justice of India, you would control more than half of the judiciary. As the CJI also decides which case is listed before which bench,” he said at a discussion on ‘Mandate of 2024 Parliamentary Elections-The Way Forward’, hosted by the Forum for Democracy and Communal Amity-Karnataka chapter.
He added that the recently concluded LS elections will impact the judiciary. “We will see that some of these judges will become more independent than we have seen in the last 10 years. They don’t see it as a fascist government staring in their faces, but a weaker one,” he said.
In terms of civil society contribution, he highlighted the need to form ‘communal harmony councils’ in all districts to confront the problem of communalism, lynching and fake information being spread to demonise minorities. These councils should report communal hatred which is a crime under the law, he added.
He said over the years, India’s political democracy has become a money game and “needs to be reclaimed”.