Why a Governor's Job for Justice Nazeer Feels Jarring (thewire.in)
At the Supreme Court, Justice Nazeer was respected as a middling judge; he is not associated with too many milestone rulings – except that he was part of the five-member Ayodhya bench that decided the title of the disputed Ramjanmabhoomi. Led by Chief Justice Ranjan Gagoi, that bench was seen as trimming its judicial sails to navigate the new post-2019 political realities of a ‘Naya Bharat’. Whatever the judges’ thought processes, their judgment handed the ruling party its most consequential political achievement, putting a judicial imprimatur on a 40-year-old Hindutva project. Justice Nazeer’s presence on that bench, “as the only Muslim judge”, added to the unanimous verdict’s judicial authoritativeness and made it palatable, if not totally acceptable, to all those who would have preferred a different outcome.
An appointment to a Raj Bhavan is a political decision and such appointments have been part of the ruling party’s bag of patronage since the early years of our Republic. Justice Nazeer’s induction can perhaps be seen as the BJP’s way of signalling some kind of message to the minorities: that while the Modi regime may be demonstrably unwilling to accommodate – or certainly not “appease” – the Muslims in the BJP’s vast electoral stable, it has not entirely shut its door on the largest minority community in the country and that the minuscule Muslim elite may not feel all that shut out from the crumbs of patronage.
by Harish Khare
13/02/2023