Bengaluru: Karnataka MLC and KPCC media wing president Ramesh Babu has strongly objected to former Supreme Court judge Justice Santosh Hegde’s recent remarks suggesting that if the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is banned, the Congress party should also face a similar fate.
Speaking at a press conference in Bengaluru on Saturday, Ramesh Babu accused Justice Hegde of acting as a “spokesperson” for the Sangh Parivar, which, he pointed out, had been banned twice before Independence and thrice after.
“Justice Hegde’s claim reflects a dual personality. It is ironic that he defends the RSS on a private television channel while remaining silent when Sanatanis attempted to target the Chief Justice of India,” Ramesh Babu said.
The Congress leader alleged that Hegde had ignored the fact that the RSS had historical links to the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi. “To compare Gandhi’s walking stick with the Sangh’s baton is unacceptable,” he remarked, accusing the Sangh Parivar of spreading divisive ideology through multiple affiliated organizations.
Ramesh Babu also recalled that Justice Hegde’s father, late K.S. Hegde, was a Supreme Court judge and Speaker in the Janata Party government, and had been a critic of the Congress and then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. “Justice Hegde’s latest statement seems to echo that political bias and perhaps stems from his perception of being denied the opportunity to become Chief Justice under a Congress government,” he alleged.
He further noted that Justice Hegde, who resigned as Karnataka Lokayukta in 2010 under the BJP government, later withdrew his resignation at the request of senior BJP leader L.K. Advani. “His current remarks appear to be a continuation of that ideological alignment,” Ramesh Babu said.
The MLC also accused the Sangh Parivar of launching personal attacks and issuing threats in response to a letter written by Priyanka Kharge. He claimed that Justice Hegde’s “pro-Sangh” stance fits into this larger pattern of attempts to reinterpret constitutional rights for political convenience.
Citing previous Supreme Court judgments, Ramesh Babu said that state governments have the authority to impose reasonable restrictions under Article 19 of the Constitution to maintain public order.
