Will Kiren Rijiju succeed in implementing BJP's plan to make the judiciary 'accountable'?

New Delhi: Even as Union Law and Justice Minister, Kiren Rijiju launched a scathing attack on Congress leader and former Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi after his conviction by a Gujarat court, the rise of the unassuming leader from Arunachal Pradesh has been steady over the past few years.

The BJP leader from the Northeast, who was until recently considered to be one of the promising young leaders of the saffron unit, has now established himself as a seasoned politician.

Over the past few months, ever since his elevation to a topmost ministry in the Narendra Modi Cabinet, Rijiju has been able to take up tasks which his predecessors, some of them decades senior to him, were not able to execute properly, sources said.  

Rijiju has been putting across the Bharatiya Janata Party’s point of view very effectively, a task that his senior predecessors and senior leaders Ravi Shankar Prasad and DV Sadananda Gowda had been unable to perform. Which many in the party feel led to the removal of the two from the Union Council of Ministers. It is believed that one of the main reasons that these Ministers lost their positions in the Narendra Modi cabinet was due to their defensive approach and being unable to put across the issues that the Centre wanted to flag.    

Prasad, despite being one of the senior-most ministers in the Modi cabinet, was found to be playing defensive. A botched-up job by Prasad, who the government entrusted to take on the judiciary, is proving to be a boon for Rijiju.  

How Rijiju is breaking the last bastion for BJP 

The judiciary is considered to be the last bastion in the country’s establishment that the Narendra Modi government is keen to overcome and make it “accountable to the people”. The saffron government wants a say in appointments to the higher judiciary and has been pushing for the cause over the past few months.

The Central government brought the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) in the year 2014 through the 99th Amendment. The proposed body would have been responsible for the recruitment, appointment and transfer of judicial officers, legal officers and legal employees in the country.  

However, the top court struck it down in 2015, saying it violates the “Basic Structure” doctrine. This paved the way for a confrontation between the two wings of the government.    

Rijiju has ensured that the government's stand is properly explained on sensitive issues like the collegium system for appointments to the higher judiciary. In fact, Rijiju has also been able to generate positive public awareness on the issue of appointments to the higher judiciary.  

From a Minister who was known for his passion for fitness and youth affairs, Rijiju has risen to the expectations of the saffron unit and tackled the controversial issues dogging the higher judiciary even as the Centre had run-ins with it over the past few months.

The hallmark of the Union Minister is that he maintains the dignity of his office and the judiciary while at the same time aggressively putting his point of view across on tricky and controversial issues. Though the Law Minister has repeatedly claimed that there is no confrontation between the judiciary and the executive, Rijiju has categorically emphasized that judges cannot be appointed through judicial orders and that it has to be done by the government.


Though the Centre was conspicuously silent over these issues for some time, over the last few months, it has become aggressive. Even Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar has been pitching for the NJAC in his recent remarks. Interestingly, in November last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was missing from the oath-taking ceremony of Justice DY Chandrachud.  

With Rijiju at the helm of affairs, the Central government wants a resolution of the issue at the earliest. It wants the higher judiciary accountable to the elected representatives voted for by the people of the country.

The BJP is hoping to find a solution to the controversy ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and bring another “achievement” before its voters as it seeks a third term under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.