Kapil Sibal: ‘Not one leader or minister in a BJP-ruled state or in central govt has been targeted (by agencies). Not one.’

At the level of society, the kind of violence that is taking place…not just physical violence but violence by the use of words, violent speech, with the conviction that the state will not prosecute you. So if a government functionary or somebody from the Bajrang Dal or the BJP says something that is not acceptable and says something which is prosecutable..he will never be prosecuted and if somebody else says something against the government which is not prosecutable he will still be prosecuted. This includes not just politicians…this includes journalists, artists, university students. Teachers lose their jobs. This is just unacceptable. Who are the targets ultimately – Dalits, members of religious minorities. So this is the social targeting that is taking place based on what belief you have, what clothes you wear and what community you belong to. The bedrock of our constitutional structure is justice – social, economic and political. Is this social justice, is this political justice.

And when you come to economics, it is even worse. The levels of poverty have increased. There are 350 million people who are living in poverty and that number has increased exponentially since 2018 when it was only 180 million people. The gap between the rich and poor have radically increased. Where is this country going? There are 80 crore who earn less than Rs 5,000 a month, what is happening to their lives. This along with price rise, unemployment, lack of opportunities for the youth …the fact that our educational institutions do not actually educate children for employment – all this is in a mess. So we need a new vision for India.

All this will need a very robust political response which results in electoral outcomes. The platform that you are floating is not an electoral forum. It is not a political party. Most of the Opposition parties are already fighting the challenges that you have mentioned. So how is your platform different from what they are doing?

You have seen the wonderful response I have got from all the political parties, almost all political parties in the Opposition. And I hope to get a few more responses very soon…also positive. The question is that if they all agree that the platform of justice needs to be taken forward and the fight against injustice should be taken forward together I think that itself would be a great achievement. The politics of it will be at the time when the elections are fought but the opposition to the present dispensation will be on a platform of injustice – that you are doing injustice to each one of us in different ways.

So you basically want to anchor this platform to bring together all the Opposition parties, which are divided.

I want to anchor this on a common agenda to fight injustice which has been unleashed by this government since 2014. That is my agenda.

Are you concerned that the Opposition continues to be divided despite all the challenges and problems that you mentioned including alleged harassment of leaders?

I have no comments on it. I will not comment on it because at the moment I am not thinking in terms of political postures by different parties. I am thinking in terms of coalescing their energies to one platform to fight this dispensation that is ruling India.

How hopeful are you that you will be able to make all of them sit across the table?

I will first of all articulate an agenda for the nation, a positive agenda for the nation on the 11th of March at Jantar Mantar and I hope the political parties react to it and take this forward because this will be a positive agenda for the real change that we want. Not the kind of change in which we say “ache din ayenge” and then you forget about it. Not the kind of change when you say “Amrit Kaal ayega” but no one is sure whether it will come or not.

You had been in a political party for a long time. You understand how the parties operate. Why should the parties accept your vision because every party has an ideology, has certain ideas, and will have a manifesto. Why should they accept an “outsider” who is spelling out an agenda.

They should not accept. They should have their own agendas. Why should I force my agenda on them but the common agenda for all of us is to fight injustice and we will then go from state to state, hopefully if this moves forward, to see the kind of injustice that is being unleashed in that particular state.

Late Sharad Yadav tried to bring together Opposition parties to save what he called India’s “composite culture”. Some political leaders and former diplomats had come together and formed a Rashtra Manch. How is your platform different?

That had no vision. It had no positive agenda and no vision. It was just coming together to oppose somebody. That is not going to help. You have to give an alternative vision for India which I plan to give and the manch is justice – which is the bedrock of our Constitution. I am doing nothing more than reiterating what the Constitution-makers had in their minds when we became a Republic.

Today, the CBI examined Rabri Devi. AAP leader Manish Sisodia was arrested some days ago. Some leaders from the Opposition came together yesterday to write a letter to the Prime Minister, but some of them were not part of it. How will this work?

I don’t think that we are correctly appreciating what is happening in this country. If several parties have written that what is happening with Sisodia is only political, that there is no basis for investigating it or trying to prosecute, is a reflection of what I am saying – injustice. If anybody is prosecuting (Bhupesh) Baghel or those near to him, that is also injustice. So we will fight that at that level. We fight this at this level. But injustice is the basis on which we will fight. It doesn’t matter whether one person joins or one person doesn’t join.

We are in a crucial election year. How do you envisage the Opposition unity? Should it be a tactical understanding in states or a national front?

I think before answering this question just wait for the 11th and let me articulate my agenda for 2024 and the future of India.

Do you think a third front experiment will work?

I am not thinking in terms of experiments. I am thinking in terms of a platform for justice – justice for the people of my country.

As the major Opposition party, do you think the initiative to bring together all parties should come from the Congress?

I don’t think it matters where it comes from as long as we are together to fight this injustice. And I am sure that all Opposition parties are one on this – whether it is injustice being done to Congress or or injustice being done to AAP, KCR, Mamata Banerjee, Uddhavji…injustice being done in Tamil Nadu…to Tejashwi, Lalu… Basically the government is functioning on silencing not just the politicians but also the common man… the student, the teacher, the artist and that is symptomatic of the injustice that we are seeing around. So we should all get together to fight.

Who will be there by your side on March 11?

I have not called anybody. As far as I am concerned it is going to be a vision that I will articulate and anybody can join me. There is no issue with that.

So at no point of time will this turn into a political party?

That is my commitment to you. I always keep my commitment. I told you I will never join another political party. I kept it. So it is my word that I will never form a political party. This manch is not a political party.