‘Events in Bangladesh highlight importance of freedom, liberty’: CJI DY Chandrachud.

“It is very easy to take freedom and liberty for granted,” the Chief Justice said at an Independence Day function in Delhi. Giving example of crisis-hit Bangladesh, Chief Justice of India (CJI), Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud, on Thursday asserted that the unrest in the neighbouring nation, is a ‘clear reminder’ of how important liberty and freedom are. The Chief Justice was addressing a gathering on the 78th Independence Day. “We chose in 1950, the uncertainty of freedom, and what is happening today, say, in Bangladesh, is a clear reminder of how precious liberty is for us. It is very easy to take freedom and liberty for granted, but it is important to understand the past stories to remind us how important these things are,” he said in Delhi. Last week, Bangladesh plunged into a political crisis as then-prime minister Sheikh Hasina resigned following a month-long student-led uprising against her. She is in Delhi, having arrived there on the day of her ouster; in Bangladesh, the interim administration of Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, is struggling to end targeted attacks on Hindus and other minorities that began with the forced exit of Hasina. CJI Chandrachud, meanwhile, called Independence Day, an occasion to ‘honour the commitment of who lives life to make it greater and who is working to make it greater.’ “This morning, I was reading a beautifuly written piece by noted Karnataka vocalist Chitra Sri Krishna and the title of the piece is Songs of Freedom. The idea of liberty is woven into the fabric of Indian poetry,” he added. Further, the CJI paid tributes to lawyers who gave up their legal practices to join the freedom movement, naming Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar, Jawaharlal Nehru, Alladi Krishnaswamy Iyer, Govind Vallabh Pant, Devi Prasad Khaitan, Sir Syed Mohammed Saadullah, and others.