Opinion Supreme Court has tried to insulate the Lakhimpur Kheri case from political pressure, the Centre must do its bit

A growing scandal in the Narendra Modi government at the Centre is the refusal by Minister of State for Home Ajay Mishra ‘Teni’ to step down from his office, nor being asked to do so. Ever since the arrest of his son, Ashish Mishra, after the killing of eight people, including four farmers and a journalist, at Lakhimpur Kheri on October 3 — one of the vehicles allegedly behind the deaths belonged to the minister — the minister, and the government he is part of, have turned a deaf ear to demands for his resignation. Now, with the Special Investigation Team probing the case telling the court that it was a planned conspiracy, that the killings “did not happen due to negligence or callousness” and that the actions of the accused, including the minister’s son, were “deliberate with an intention to kill”, the minister’s continuation in office has become even more untenable. The government’s defence — it stonewalled the Opposition in Parliament saying that “sub judice” matters could not be discussed in the House, and has been arguing to the effect that a father could not be punished for the alleged sins of the son — simply does not hold. Admittedly, the investigation is ongoing and the case is still to have its day in court. But it is precisely to ensure that the justice process is impartial and fair, and is also seen to be so, that the minister must go. Political propriety calls for guarding against the possibility of the minister’s power and office exerting undue influence on the trajectory of the case against his son.

The Modi government is embarrassing itself by not sacking its minister. It might take even more, however, to embarrass MoS Mishra. After all, the two-term MP from Lakhimpur Kheri who is widely regarded as a “bahubali (strongman)” within his constituency and little known outside it, and who has been unsubtly soliciting a party ticket for his son in the upcoming UP election, is no stranger to the criminal case or controversy. It is to insulate the case against local pressures of all kinds, justifiably, that the Supreme Court took the notable step of reconstituting the SIT and appointed a retired judge to monitor the probe by officers who do not belong to UP. The bench headed by Chief Justice of India NV Ramana did so “to preserve the faith and trust of people” in the administration of the justice system after previously disapproving of the “slow pace, manner and outcome of the investigation conducted so far”. Earlier, Ashish Mishra was arrested only after the court, on October 9, criticised the lenient treatment he seemed to be receiving from the UP police.

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MoS Mishra, on Wednesday, reportedly called journalists “thieves”, and pushed one of them when asked about the SIT’s new charge against the Lakhimpur accused, including his son. But that is not the clinching argument against his continuing presence in the ministry. He must go, simply and most of all, because the “democratic spirit” that includes multi-party elections, an independent judiciary and a free media, but is also about more than the sum of these parts — as PM Modi underlined in his remarks at the Summit of Democracy only days ago — calls for it.

This editorial first appeared in the print edition on December 17, 2021 under the title ‘Get MoS to go’.