New Delhi: The Congress Sunday rejected BJP chief J.P. Nadda’s bid to disown party MPs Nishikant Dubey and Dinesh Sharma’s controversial remarks on the Supreme Court, calling it a “damage control” exercise.
The principal opposition party said Dubey and Sharma’s remarks were meant to “deliberately” undermine the judiciary.
In a statement, Congress general secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh questioned the lack of action against Dubey and Sharma—members of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha respectively—calling them “repeat offenders” used by the BJP’s top leadership to attack communities, institutions and individuals.
“The distancing of the outgoing BJP president from the atrocious remarks made by 2 BJP MPs on the Chief Justice of India carries little meaning. These MPs are repeat offenders when it comes to hate speech and are very often used by G2 to attack communities, institutions, and individuals. The outgoing BJP president’s clarification is nothing but damage control. It will fool nobody. This is Entire Political Science reflecting itself as Entire Political Hypocrisy,” Ramesh said.
Ramesh has in the past used the term ‘G2’ to refer to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
Dubey had Saturday targeted Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna, calling him responsible for “all civil wars in the country”. He also posted a cryptic message on X, saying that if the Supreme Court is to make the laws, Parliament should be shut down.
क़ानून यदि सुप्रीम कोर्ट ही बनाएगा तो संसद भवन बंद कर देना चाहिये
— Dr Nishikant Dubey (@nishikant_dubey) April 19, 2025
His tirade against the top court came against the backdrop of the SC setting a timeline for the President to take decisions on Bills sent by governors and its questioning of certain provisions of the amended Waqf Act.
Sharma, a former deputy chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, was also critical of the top court, saying no one could direct Parliament or the President.
The controversy sparked by these remarks prompted Nadda to clarify that the BJP does not endorse such a view. He also said he has instructed the MPs to not make such statements.
“But the outgoing BJP president is totally silent on equally unacceptable remarks on the judiciary that are continually made by one of its very distinguished appointees to a high Constitutional position. What does he have to say about these remarks? Does the BJP subscribe to them?” Ramesh said, in an apparent reference to Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar’s remarks on the judiciary acting as a “Super Parliament”.
“If the continued silence of the Prime Minister on these repeated attacks on the Indian Constitution is not tacitly supportive of them, why has no action been taken against these two MPs? Has Nadda ji issued show cause notices to these two MPs?” Ramesh added.
On Saturday, Ramesh alleged that statements were being made against the top court to “deliberately” target it.
“They (BJP) are busy weakening the Supreme Court. The powers given by the Constitution to the Supreme Court are being sought to be weakened. Those holding Constitutional posts, ministers and even BJP MPs are all speaking against the Supreme Court, which is only saying that while making laws, don’t go against the basic structure of the Constitution,” the Congress leader said.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
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