Time to learn second painful lesson, says Singhvi over BJP’s stand on Waqf Amendment Bill, lateral entry

Congress Working Committee member Abhishek Manu Singhvi is all set for his fourth Rajya Sabha term

Congress Working Committee (CWC) member Abhishek Manu Singhvi said 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,” he said while speaking about if this was a better time to be in the Opposition. He was speaking about the Centre's recent stand on Waqf Amendment Bill and lateral recruitment to the bureaucracy.

In an interview with Indian Express, Singhvi said the BJP loves to use jumlas to paraphrase and rephrase as it has done with hundreds of schemes. He was speaking about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Independence Day speech where stressed upon the need to move towards a “secular civil code” instead of the existing “communal civil code”. “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,” said the Congress leader.

He also said got three release orders for Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in three months, two by the Supreme Court and one by the trial court.

“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,” Singhvi told Indian Express.

Kejriwal has been in custody since March 21 following his arrest by the Directorate of Enforcement, apart from a 21-day interim bail in May granted by the top court for Lok Sabha elections campaigning.

Singhvi also said he has not taken a definitive view on the recent Supreme Court verdict on sub-classification of SCs and STs. “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,” said Singhvi.

On Congress and the AAP ally for the Haryana Assembly polls, the Congress leader said “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,” he said.

Singhvi is all set for his fourth Rajya Sabha term as he will be elected unopposed after the party nominated him from Telangana for the September 3 bypolls.