The decision of Calcutta High Court judge Abhijit Gangopadhyay to resign from the judiciary to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and seek a ticket to contest the general elections is deeply problematic. Gangopadhyay has been in the limelight for his orders in high-profile cases where the West Bengal government and the Trinamool Congress (TMC) were at the receiving end. The judge’s statement – “I approached the BJP and the BJP approached me” – will undoubtedly raise the question if he gave anti-TMC rulings at the behest of the the BJP, as the TMC has previously alleged. A few years ago, when the then chief justice of the Supreme Court Ranjan Gogoi accepted the Rajya Sabha nomination after his retirement, it had also raised many eyebrows.
However, Gangopadhyay has gone too far by joining the ruling BJP after resigning from the service. This directly shows that all the judgments made by him were done under political influence. He had set his eyes on joining the BJP and therefore delivered several judgments against the TMC government of West Bengal. Indian democracy has been thriving because of independent media and an independent judiciary. Today, sadly, the media are literally under the grasp of the ruling BJP and have lost their independent nature. This is a sad commentary on the once vocal and independent Indian media. After the media, now it seems like the BJP is intent on strangling the judiciary. This is a very dangerous trend and is an ominous warning sign of things to come in the future.