Ahmedabad, 17 October 2012

Union Minister for Law and Justice Salman Khurshid has been in the news lately for all the wrong reasons, the latest being for a trust which has received grants based on allegedly forged letters. That he hasn’t quite reacted sensibly in midst of the loud clamour for his resignation shows his glaring inability to handle the heat that Indian politics exudes.

But this is not the first time Khurshid has found himself with his foot in his mouth. 2012 started controversially for him with his feud with the Election Commission during the Uttar Pradesh elections where he promised the Pasmanda Muslims of Farrukhabad that he would carve out a 9% sub-quota for Muslims out of the 27% quota for OBCs.

It is another matter that his wife, Louise Khurshid, who was contesting from Farrukhabad district and who should have reaped the benefits of Khurshid’s promises, ended up fifth in what should have been a four-way race.

That, however, didn’t discourage him from aggressively pursuing the sub-quota for which he had dared the EC to “hang him”. A recent instance of aggressive posturing could potentially land him in big trouble.

After the Resolution carving out a 4.5% minority sub-quota was passed by the UPA government last year, a PIL was filed in the Andhra Pradesh High Court challenging the same. The Andhra HC struck down the sub-quota stating that the Centre had acted in a “casual manner” and that this sub-quota was based on religious grounds rather than any intelligible consideration.

The UPA government appealed in the Supreme Court against this decision hoping that SC would grant a stay on the Andhra HC judgment which would have meant that the UPA could commence the process of implementing the sub-quota.

Due to the summer holidays at that time, this matter came before the vacation Bench. It is important to mention here that vacation Bench orders are no different in their importance from the regular SC Bench.

As it turned out, the SC declined to grant a stay on the Andhra HC judgment which meant that the UPA would have to wait till the SC hears the arguments and actually decides in its favour. This led a visibly upset Khurshid to make utterances undermining the Bench.

Speaking at a media briefing in Ahmedabad, he said: “Let me explain to you that this is only a Vacation Bench. Vacation Bench traditionally tends to be a little conservative. Stay has not been granted, but all material will be considered when the Court in due course examines in more detail … So we have to wait till the Supreme Court reopens and these matters are taken up afresh”. [emphasis mine].

A DeshGujarat video containing Khurshid’s briefing can be accessed here .

The Vice-Chairman of the Bar Council of Gujarat, Dipen Dave, sent Khurshid a letter asking him to hold a media briefing and apologize for those utterances failing which he would file a petition asking for initiation of contempt proceedings against him.

Khurshid rubbished this letter stating, among other things, that “unfortunately you appear to have allowed your political persuasion to overwhelm your training as a lawyer”.

Thereafter, Dave wrote to the Attorney General seeking consent under the Contempt of Courts Act to prosecute Khurshid for criminal contempt. The Attorney General rejected Dave’s application declining to grant consent. Dave has now filed a petition in the Supreme Court to initiate contempt proceedings.

Dave has alleged that not only has Khurshid attempted to portray the vacation Bench as inferior to the regular SC Bench, he has misled the general public by implying that the vacation Bench’s order will be of no consequence once the regular Bench commences work and that the latter will correct the vacation Bench’s order.

How the SC will deal with Dave’s contempt petition remains to be seen. Regardless, the impact of these utterances is exacerbated by the fact that they were made by the Union Minister of Law and Justice.

And far from being a criticism of the judgment – something that is fair game in our democracy – it attacks and undermines the judges who presided over the order (in this case, Justice Radhakrishnan and Justice Khehar).

Not only has Khurshid and his party not learnt their lessons of reaping electoral gains with the help of such shortcuts (interestingly, the Zakir Hussain trust run by his wife uses taxpayer money to serve differently-abled people in their electoral constituency of Farrukhabad), he has displayed an increasing sense of arrogance and disregard towards the institutions of our country.

As if openly daring the EC to “hang him” for implementing the sub-quota was not enough to create inimicality in the minds of Muslims towards the EC, the minister in charge of upholding the notion of justice seems to be having no qualms making irresponsible remarks on judges of the highest court.

This roughshod manner of appeasement reveals how he has lost himself in the Muslim ghetto. Sadly, however, he has planted various seeds of discontent on his way. His utterances reflect the attitude of a spoilt child who loses all sense of respect by launching attacks on institutions that don’t let him have his way.

The sooner Khurshid realizes that being the grandson of Zakir Hussain or an Oxonian(Oxfordian) is not a ready-made ticket to commanding agreement, trust and respect, the better it will be for him.