Hyderabad: Former BJP leader Yashwant Sinha has slammed the National Human Rights Commission India (NHRC) chairman, Justice Arun Mishra, for heaping praise on home minister Amit Shah.
Sinha, who is now the vice president of Trinamool Congress, called Mishra’s conduct “pure chaplusi”.
“Justice Arun Mishra praises PM in his presence as a judge of SC. He is apptd chairman of the NHRC. Now he praises the HM in his presence. This is pure chaplusi. How low will you fall Justice Mishra?” he wrote in a tweet.
Speaking at the 28th Foundation Day of NHRC, the country’s human rights body, Arun Mishra said a new era has now been propelled in Jammu and Kashmir because of Union home minister Amit Shah.
“It is for you, Mr Shah, that a new era has now begun in Jammu and Kashmir,” he said. In his address, Mishra also stated that “it is now a norm to accuse India of human rights violation at the behest of international forces.”
On August 5, 2019, Amit Shah had declared in Parliament to end special status for Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 and downgraded it into two Union Territories.
It is to be noted that Mishra is the head of a rights body that often has to look at cases against the government and his comments praising the home minister are seen in conflict with his job.
In 2020, his comments raised eyebrows when he, as a sitting Supreme Court judge, described Prime Minister Narendra Modi as an “internationally acclaimed visionary” at a public forum. He commended the “versatile genius” of Prime Minister Modi to “think globally and act locally”.
Justice Mishra heaped praises on Modi twice while delivering his vote of thanks at the inaugural session of the International Judicial Conference in 2020.
Mishra was appointed as the NHRC chairman immediately after his retirement as the Supreme Court judge. He was named the chairperson of the rights body in June this year, despite objections raised by the opposition Congress in the selection committee. This is the first time that the NHRC chief is not a former Chief Justice of India.