Letters to The Editor — February 20, 2025

Appointing the CEC

Apart from ensuring that there are three column headlines in newspapers, what the Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi aims or achieves from his phrase, ‘midnight call/appointment of CEC’, is anybody’s guess. That he has been reacting to every move by the BJP/Modi government ever since he appeared in politics is known to all.

Those who feel that the government going ahead with the process is a hasty move and that it could have waited for the top court’s judgment in the ongoing litigations have reasonable solution in the Court’s solid observation last week: that ‘if there was any development in the interregnum, it would meet the consequences’. The Court is surely expected to answer ‘whether the Act of 2023 goes against the 2022 verdict’.

I find little chance that the Court will insist on the Chief Justice of India’s constant presence in the panel. That the issue is not very important can be deduced from the Court’s line that it would now try to hear the case on March 19.

Fears about ‘the majority’ in the panel and the Opposition leader getting reduced to a ‘figurehead’ have some grounds in our politics. The only solution at present appears to be to legally insist on ‘unanimous decisions’ by the panel. The constitution of the panel can also be changed and strengthened so that it has, say six members — three from different ruling parties and three from different Opposition parties. With neither group claiming ‘majority’ and with more members within, the panel might be able to solve the present controversies.

P.R.V. Raja,

Pandalam, Kerala

YouTuber, vulgarity

The Supreme Court of India has rightly condemned the “filthy language” that a prominent YouTuber used recently, in what is a case that highlights the tension between free speech and responsible expression. Common decency dictates boundaries, regardless of the legal definitions of obscenity. The Court’s advice to him, to “stop this show business for the time being”, sends a clear message to all. It is time to have a serious conversation about online ethics.

Muskan R.,

Hospet, Karnataka