Union minister of law and justice Kiren Rijiju has alleged that there is a calibrated effort by some opposition parties and social organisations to undermine and defame the Indian judiciary by trying to portray a picture that the government is controlling it. He is confident that this effort would not succeed.Rijiju was interviewed by Dr Zakka Jacob, managing editor of CNN-News18, during the Lokmat National Conclave in New Delhi on Tuesday. Rajendra Darda, Editor-in-Chief of Lokmat Media Group welcomed him while Rishi Darda, Joint Managing Director and Editorial Director of Lokmat Media Group, presented him a memento. The minister said that the Indian judiciary is completely independent and his government is not interfering in its working. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has helped the judiciary the most, especially by digitizing its working, he said.
Rijiju, however, objected to attempts of the judiciary to appropriate the powers of legislature and executive. He said that if the judiciary should be independent then so should be the other two organs of democracy. He pointed out that there was a huge pendency of cases in courts and does that mean that the executive should take over the judicial functions. He, however, claimed that there are no differences between the present government and the judiciary but some vested interests are spreading lies in this regard.The BJP leader maintained that while the government is okay with any type of relationship as long as it is not illegal, it is against same sex marriages. Marriage is an institution and it is governed by laws enacted by Parliament. Any such law should be enacted by Parliament, which represents the will of people, he said. On allegations by the opposition parties regarding misuse of investigative agencies, Rijiju said that none of the BJP ministers are corrupt and hence there are no raids against them. He said that the UPA government was full of corrupt ministers. The present government at the Centre has zero tolerance towards corruption, he asserted.