भास्कर ओपिनियन: गणपति पूजा से इफ़्तार पार्टी तक राजनीतिक द्वंद्व

This is a country of controversies. Ganesh Utsav is going on in the country right now and the controversy has started over Ganpati Puja. Actually, Prime Minister Narendra Modi went to the house of Supreme Court Chief Justice (CJI) Chandrachud wearing a Maharashtrian dress. He also performed Ganpati Puja there. The Prime Minister performed Ganpati Aarti and the CJI sang it. The opposition created a ruckus over this.

The opposition says that there is a limit in both politics and the judicial system. There is a Laxman Rekha. It must be followed. Even if the Chief Justice had invited the Prime Minister for Ganpati Puja, what was the need to videograph it? Or why was there a need for publicity?

In response, the Bharatiya Janata Party says that when the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh hosted an Iftar party during the Congress regime and the then Chief Justice of India attended it, why did the Congress and other parties not object? The question is that whether it is an Iftar party or Ganpati Puja, anyone can go anywhere on someone’s program or invitation.

PM Modi had gone to CJI Chandrachud’s house on September 11 for Ganesh puja.

What is the objection in this? After all, does a CJI or a Prime Minister have a private and social life or not? Then can a Prime Minister going to a CJI’s house to offer prayers affect the CJI’s decisions? No. Our constitutional institutions are not so weak that they can be affected by someone’s visit to someone’s house!

That Kashmiri Farooq Abdullah is also condemning the Prime Minister’s visit to the CJI’s house who did not care about any law or any constitutional institution during his rule in Kashmir. That Uddhav Thackeray whose party was with the BJP for years is also saying that CJI Chandrachud should recuse himself from judicial matters related to us!

What kind of debate is this? What kind of era is this where the decisions, sincerity and honesty of the Chief Justice are being doubted! Just because the Prime Minister of the country visited his house and participated in Ganpati Puja?

True, there should be a limit and a Laxman Rekha in politics and the judicial system, but how can the religious sentiments of a CJI or a Prime Minister be sidelined for this?