Beware of people trying to lead us astray: V P Dhankhar

New Delhi, Aug 21 (PTI) Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar Wednesday cautioned that India is facing times when informed people were trying to "lead us astray" knowing fully well they are not on the right path.

He also said India, the world's largest democracy, faces challenges and it will withstand them, but the challenges coming from the intelligentsia within is "unacceptable".

Addressing an event here, Dhankhar, who is also the Rajya Sabha chairperson, referred to the three new criminal-justice laws which came into force last month, and lamented that several distinguished senior advocates who are members of Rajya Sabha skipped the debate on them.

"They ought to have participated in the debate, they ought to have contributed," he said.

"Leading lights, I don't want to name them. But what pains me enormously is that these gentlemen make an outcry in public domain as if nothing happened in Rajya Sabha," he said in an apparent reference to some opposition leaders who had spoken out against the bills.

Dhankhar said one of them -- "a former finance minister and a regular columnist" (an apparent reference to P Chidambaram) -- said he has given objections to the standing committee on Home.

But the objections were in "less than three pages", the VP said.

"The main objection was there should be no penalty of death. Coming to the rescue of terrorists, rapists, enemies to the nation?" the vice president quipped. "And such a dichotomy in one's behaviour. He happened to be in governance seat when we had the painful incident of Nirbhaya." "The largest democracy is getting challenges. We will withstand those challenges. But the challenges coming from within from intelligentsia -- that is unacceptable," the vice president said.

He said India is facing times when informed people, knowledgable people, people who believed in constitutionalism, were part of governance, try to "lead us astray" knowing fully well they are not on the right path.

He said two persons -- one a former minister and a member of the legal fraternity, and the other a member of the Indian Foreign Service -- said that what happened in a neighbouring country can happen in India. He was apparently referring to Salman Khurshid and Mani Shankar Iyer, both Congress leaders.

Referring to the 1975 Emergency, Dhankhar said there was a period when dictatorship was in full play. "Presidency failed, nine high courts stood the ground, but the Supreme Court failed," he said.

He urged citizens to beware of the people, "small category in the country and outside", who are engaged in a pernicious design to taint, tarnish, demean our institutions. PTI NAB NAB TIR TIR