Former Supreme Court judge Justice B N Srikrishna, while lamenting the current situation in the country, said that things are 'very bad' and if he were to stand at a public square and criticize the Prime Minister, somebody might raid, arrest or throw him in jail without citing any reason.
Srikrishna's comments, made in an interview with The Hindu newspaper, seem to have irked Union Minister for Law and Justice Kiren Rijiju.
Retorting to Srikrishna's comments, Rijiju said in a tweet, "Those people who speak all the time without any restrictions to abuse the popularly elected Prime Minister are crying about freedom of expression! They will never talk about Emergency imposed by Congress party and never dare to criticise some Regional Party CMs."
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In The Hindu interview, Srikrishna was asked if a Telangana IAS officer was wrong in tweeting from her personal account in support of Gujarat riot gangrape victim Bilkis Bano to which he replied criticism which is civil and made in a decent manner is acceptable.
But he was also concerned about the rule of law and how the government responds to critics, he added.
Justice Srikrishna retired as a judge of the Supreme Court in 2006. Since his retirement, he has headed several committees both for the Congress-led UPA government and the BJP government.