New Delhi, Aug 25 (IANS) Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Monday took objection to Home Minister Amit Shah’s remarks on the Opposition’s Vice-Presidential candidate B. Sudershan Reddy, in which he accused the latter of ‘diluting’ the country’s fight against Naxalism with his ruling on Salwa Judum, an armed vigilante group that was formed in Chhattisgarh to quell Maoist insurgency.
Congress communications in-charge took to X to vent his displeasure over Amit Shah’s accusations and said that many “courageous people, including the retired judges and jurists, have called out his lies”.
“20 of the most eminent legal personalities of India - including retired Supreme Court Judges, retired Chief Justices of High Courts, and retired Judges of High Courts - have now exposed his lies regarding Justice B. Sudershan Reddy garu, the joint Opposition candidate for the Vice Presidential election, ” Ramesh stated in an X post.
Further in a satirical taunt, he said, “The Union Home Minister that our country has the great misfortune of having is a 2-in-1 WMD--a Weapon of Malicious Defamation as well as a Weapon of Mischievous Distortion. But there are still people in India courageous enough to call him out.”
The controversy erupted over the Opposition’s VP candidate, Sudershan Reddy, also a former Supreme Court judge, after Amit Shah allegedly labelled him as a supporter of Maoism and also pointed fingers at him for ‘aiding’ the Maoists with the Salwa Judum ruling.
Amit Shah, speaking at an event in Kerala recently, remarked, "Sudershan Reddy is the person who helped Naxalism. He gave Salwa Judum judgment. If the Salwa Judum judgment had not been given, the Naxal terror would have vanished by 2020."
This was, however, countered by Sudershan Reddy, who stated that the judgement was not given by him but by the Apex court.
The ruling by the top court disbanded the Salwa Judum outfit and deemed illegal the recruitment of tribal youth to fight Maoist insurgency in Chhattisgarh and adjoining regions.