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Citizens of all religions, ethnicity proud Indians: Chief Justice Khehar

Chief Justice Khehar recalls his family's role in the Freedom Movement

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Chief Justice of India JS Khehar
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The Independence Day function at the Supreme Court today became a nostalgic affair for Chief Justice of India Jagdish Singh Khehar. For, in his address, the CJI reminisced about how his great grandfather was forced to shift to Kenya to avoid being arrested in Lahore for his suspected role in the fomenting a student uprising against the British rule.

He also asserted that every citizen of India was treated equally, adding that everybody, whatever be the religion, should be proud of being an Indian.

"The Chief Justice of India was not a citizen of this country to start with. But when he became the citizen of this country, he was equal to everybody else and had equal opportunities. This is what citizenship or independence of this great country means,” he said.

"Whether it is Christians, Buddhists, Hindus, Zoroastrians, Muslims or Jains, everybody should be proud of his own religion to be an Indian. Everybody should be proud of his own ethnicity. Proud of being an Indian and that is what the Constitution is all about," he said.

The CJI’s statement assumes significance coming as it is within days of previous Vice President Hamid Ansari’s assertion that Muslims were feeling insecure in the country.

“You might be thinking how I reached Kenya and became a Kenyan national? My great grandfather was Dr Wazir Chand, a medical doctor in Lahore. In his spare time, he was honorary doctor of student boarders in the DAV institutions in Lahore. He was suspected of involvement in the freedom movement, for motivating college students to join the uprising against the British. To avoid his arrest and from being incarcerated in the Andamans, he fled to Kenya,” CJI Khehar recalled.

However, while the CJI’s great grandfather escaped to Kenya, his grandmother, Sulakshna, was brought up in Jalandhar under the care of freedom fighter Lala Lajpat Rai.

The family remained in Kenya till India got her Independence, after which Dr Wazir Chand returned to India. In early 1960s, the CJI’s father also took retirement from his Kenyan job to return to his roots in Punjab.

While still in school, CJI Khehar gave up his Kenyan nationality, deciding to acquire Indian nationality.

"After being a citizen, you are neither inferior nor superior to anyone. You are no less or more than anyone else," CJI Khehar said.

He pointed out that the country has a Dalit leader who spent his childhood in a mud hut, a Vice President who is an agriculturist, and a Prime Minister who was once a tea vendor.

In his address, Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, who was also present, suggested that the country’s greatest achievement was its secular fabric. 

"I hold a very firm view that India is not secular because the Constitution says so. The word 'secularism' was added to the Preamble only during Emergency. India is secular because India's heritage is secular. That flows from the great Rig Veda. Truth is one, wise men interpret it in different manners," he said.

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