The way senior Supreme Court advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay has been hell bent on prosecuting YSR Congress party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy for alleged contempt of court has made one wonder what he is so particular about this case.
Upadhyay has written letters twice to Attorney General K K Venugopal, seeking permission to file a contempt of court petition against Jagan for writing a letter to Chief Justice of India S A Bobde and also disclosing the letter to media.
In the letter to the CJI, Jagan accused SC judge N V Ramana of trying to destabilise and topple the YSRC government in the state, in alleged collusion with some state high court judges and Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu.
Though Venugopal agreed with Upadhyay extent, he refused to give consent to the latter saying the chief justice was seized of the issue.
He suggested that if Upadhyay was so particular about launching a contempt case against Jagan, he could straightaway approach the CJI.
One wonders why Upadhyay is targeting Jagan. There is a talk that he might have the backing of Chandrababu Naidu, who has been facing criticism of managing every system in the country and is keen on seeing Jagan behind the bars at the earliest.
However, not many people know that Upadhyay is a full-time politician, belonging to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. Initially, he was a founding member of the Aam Aadmi Party and was also associated with the Anna Hazare-led anti-corruption movement.
He, however, quit AAP in 2014 and joined the BJP. Within months, he was appointed spokesperson for the Delhi unit. He filed several public interest litigation petitions in the Supreme Court that suit the interests of the BJP.
Some of them include: petition to bar people with criminal antecedents from contesting elections, making Yoga compulsory in all schools, making it mandatory for people to sing Vandemataram and national anthem compulsory in all schools, making Hindi a compulsory language in schools across the country, triple talaq case and linking of property details with Aadhar number.
For all these PILS, it was pretty evident that Upadhyay had the backing of BJP. So, it has given rise to the impression that the BJP might be backing him in launching a tirade against Jagan as well.
The question arises why the BJP should target Jagan, when the latter is maintaining friendly relations with the Centre led by Narendra Modi. In fact, there was a talk that Jagan had written a letter to the CJI and disclosed it to the media only after taking approval from Modi and Amit Shah.
So, why is Upadhyay gunning for the head of Jagan? Who is funding his petitions? Let us wait for the answers.
