Abhishek Manu Singhvi interview: ‘BJP used to unilateral decision-making, time for it to learn painful lessons’

Excerpts:

You are set to become a Rajya Sabha member once again, this time from Telangana. Earlier this year, you faced a setback in Himachal Pradesh.

Firstly, I saw human nature at its best and human nature at its worst a few months ago and that is an invaluable learning experience. Secondly, there is always divine retribution since six of those nine MLAs have lost. The three who are there are out in the cold in the Opposition with minimal support. The whole conspiracy was much more to dislodge the elected Himachal government and I was only supposed to be collateral damage. But despite my loss, my legal advice regarding their disqualification and my appearance in the Supreme Court did prevent the Himachal government from experiencing excessive turbulence.

You have been a Rajya Sabha MP twice from Rajasthan, once from West Bengal with TMC’s support, and now from Telangana. Are you indispensable for the Congress and even some other parties?

I have no illusions about myself but I am proud of the fact that there is virtually no colour of the political spectrum that I have not represented, barring the BJP, in critical matters. And more than mere professional representation, I have maintained a certain mutual respect and try never to hit below the belt, which I expect as the true tradition of Indian democracy and which I think my opponents respect … I have to thank my party and its top leadership in a heartfelt manner.

After filing your nomination in Hyderabad, you rushed to Bengaluru to appear for Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in the MUDA case …

In a lighter vein, I told the Telangana MLAs that day that they should not consider me rude in leaving shortly after filing the nomination because if I didn’t do it, the Karnataka Chief Minister would sue the Chief Minister of Telangana. The case is completely frivolous and vexatious. If the principle practised in Karnataka is accepted, then a walker on the roadside can file a complaint to a friendly Governor who can sanction it … despite a 100-page detailed order by the Cabinet giving reasons why sanction ought not to be granted. This is the gravest assault on federalism.

You have managed to secure bail for AAP leader Manish Sisodia but Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal is still in jail. How is that legal fight going on?

I have got three release orders for Mr Kejriwal in three months, two by the Supreme Court and one by the trial court. All three were given despite Section 45 under PMLA. What does one do if an absolutely shameless government does an insurance CBI arrest for a fourth time … when the CBI has never interrogated him for more than a year? This government knows that the process is the punishment and the process is underway and we are confident about the legal position.

What are your views on the recent Supreme Court verdict on sub-classification of SCs and STs?

The Congress has not taken a definitive view and I do not want to preempt the final view. Secondly, it is a complete vindication of Rahul Gandhi’s stand on caste census because you cannot implement it without having data, which in turn can come only from a caste census.

The government referred the Waqf Amendment Bill to a Joint Committee of Parliament and backtracked from its policy of lateral recruitment to the bureaucracy. Is this a better time to be in the Opposition, compared to the last 10 years?

I think the time has come when the BJP realises that its extreme intersection of a sense of infallibility with arrogance must go. The time has also come to learn a second painful lesson, namely collegiate decision-making. These are not easy lessons for a leadership used to unilateralism and dictatorship in decision-making. But they will have to be learnt, even if the hard way.

Should the Congress and the AAP ally for the Haryana Assembly polls?

The nitty-gritty questions have to be asked to the general secretary in charge of the state. But I believe, firstly, that the pre-election INDIA alliance has great relevance and resonance even post elections and everything should be done to keep it vibrant in letter and spirit despite very natural, statewide and regional differences.

In his Independence Day speech, Prime Minister Narendra Modi underlined the need to move towards a “secular civil code” instead of the existing “communal civil code”. How do you view his framing?

The BJP loves to use jumlas to paraphrase and rephrase as it has done with hundreds of schemes. Two more areas where the BJP will be forced to learn the painful lessons of collegiality are going to be UCC and ‘one nation, one election’.

It is not possible to implement UCC without a very wide and complete consultation, which has not even begun, much less achieved. This whole exercise of state UCCs … creates limping, non-uniform codes for each state just to satisfy the vanity of the BJP. It is meaningless.