A rift within the Congress party, on whether it would be prudent to go ahead with an impeachment motion against Chief Justice of India, Dipak Misra, as well as the failure to garner a wider consensus among opposition parties, prompted the grand old party to drop its plans to submit the motion in the Rajya Sabha in the just concluded budget session of Parliament.
According to a senior Congress leader, who is a member of the Rajya Sabha, the Congress party was divided over the issue, with a sizeable section opposing the move. A section in the party, he said, felt that the recent developments in the judiciary were a matter of grave concern, and an impeachment motion against the CJI was in view of the seriousness of the charges levelled against him and also his failure to address the issues raised by the four seniormost judges, in their unprecedented press conference in the beginning of the year.
However, there was a sizeable section that felt that since the issue was that of the judiciary, an important institution, the Congress should tread with caution before going in for an extreme measure such as moving an impeachment motion against the CJI. “It was also felt that it may not be prudent to go ahead with the motion since the charges made out against Justice Misra may not be of a verifiable nature, and it will be a big embarrassment if the motion is rejected by the enquiry committee which would be set up to look into them,” the leader said.
It was a foregone conclusion that the impeachment motion would not go through since the opposition does not have the numbers, but the move was aimed at sending out a political message and cornering the government.
Asked if the impeachment motion is now a closed chapter since Parliament session is now over, Anand Sharma, deputy leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha, said, “We never said whether it is open or close. It is a matter of discussion. Whenever any decision is taken, you will be informed.”
Congress President Rahul Gandhi is learnt to have been keen on the party initiating the motion. A draft impeachment motion was readied, and the required number of signatures were collected. “Numbers were never an issue. The Congress alone has the numbers to submit the motion,” the leader said. However, the party chief is understood to have wanted the motion to be backed by a wider consensus among the oppostion parties, which the Congress failed to garner. The DMK had a last-minute rethink on it, while the Trinamool Congress has maintained that it wants the move to gain wider support before it decides on whether to back it. The Samajwadi Party, which earlier pledged support to the motion, is also learnt to have had a change of mind on the issue.