Opposition vice presidential candidate B Sudershan Reddy on Saturday reacted to the controversy surrounding Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s accusation that he supported Naxalism.
In an exclusive interview with PTI, Reddy asserted that the verdict was not his but that of the Supreme Court.
On Amit Shah’s attack on him over the Salwa Judum verdict, Reddy said, “I do not wish to join an issue directly with the Honourable Home Minister of India, whose constitutional duty and obligation is to protect the life, liberty and property of every citizen, irrespective of ideological differences. Secondly, I have authored the judgement. The judgement is not mine, the judgement is of the Supreme Court.”
Reddy said he wished Shah read the judgment, which runs up to 40 pages. “If he had read the judgement, perhaps he would not have made that comment. That’s all I say and leave it there… There must be decency in the debate,” he asserted.
What did Amit Shah say?
Speaking in Kerala on Friday, Amit Shah said, “Sudershan Reddy is the person who helped Naxalism. He gave Salwa Judum judgment. If the Salwa Judum judgement had not been given, the Naxal terrorism would have ended by 2020. He is the person who was inspired by the ideology that gave Salwa Judam judgment.”
Reddy, along with Justice S S Nijjar, was part of a top court bench that had in July 2011 ordered the disbanding of Salwa Judum, ruling that using tribal youths as Special Police Officers in the fight against Maoist insurgents was illegal and unconstitutional.
Citing the judgment, Home Minister Shah accused the former judge of the Supreme Court of ‘supporting’ Naxalism and said that had it not been there, Left Wing extremism would have ended by 2020.