After lashing out against former Supreme Court judge Justice Kurian Joseph for his reported statement that the ‘minority tag’ has hindered his career progression, the National Minority Commission Vice-Chairman George Kurian has requested the President of India to “formulate a mechanism to maintain the spirit of the oath or affirmation taken by the Judges of the high courts and the Supreme Court of India, even after their retirement”.
In a letter to President Ramnath Kovind, George Kurian said the recent comments by Justice Kurian Joseph were unbecoming of a Supreme Court judge. The NCM vice-chairman had earlier said that the former judge had made the statement with malicious intensions to create hatred and fear among the people.
According to George Kurian, the former judge’s statement betrays his inadequate and distorted perception of how India has governed itself in the last seven decades.
“Ours has been a country that has been completely committed to the protection of the rights of minority groups’ rights from its independence. Ours is a country where equity and fraternity have been enshrined as the cardinal principles of governance and polity. Inclusion and non-discrimination have been our country’s non-negotiable articles of faith,” George Kurian stated in the letter.
Tearing apart Justice Kurian Joseph’s claim, George Kurian said all these years the effort has been to place persons of merit on positions of importance. “Other considerations were secondary. If this were not the case, we would not have had stalwarts like Shri Zakir Hussain, Shri Fakruddin Ali Ahmed and Shri APJ Abdul Kalam as our Presidents. We would not have had Dr. Zakir Hussain or Mohammad Hidayatulla or Mohammad Hamid Ansari as our Vice Presidents. Nor we would have had Smt. Najma Heptullah, Shri Rahman Khan or Shri P.J. Kurian as the Deputy Chairmen of the Rajya Sbaha. We would not have had Justice Mirza Hameedullah Beg, Justice Aziz Mushabber Ahmadi or Justice Almatis Kabir as the Chief Justices of India. We would not have Sam Manekshaw as the only Field Marshal the country has had nor would we have had Sunith Francis Rodrigues as Army Chief and Idris Latif as the Chief of Air Staff.”
According to George Kurian, Dr. Ambedkar while presenting the Constitution had clearly said that it is not the quality of document but people who work the Constitution which determines how the country will progress. “The men and women who are occupying exalted positions like Justice Kurian should exercise caution and restraint in their articulation. They should help preserve and protect the spirit of Indian Constitution rather than erode the public trust in these institutions. The temptation to divide the country on the basis of caste, creed, sex, religion and region should be condemned,” stated George Kurian.
“Unfortunately, casual comments like this fuel a thought process which is against the very spirit of ‘Indianness’. They are an unpardonable disruption of the binding thread that runs through our Constitution. I hope such ill-thought statements are not a part of public discourse any longer,” George Kurian added.