Retired Supreme Court Judge Jasti Chelameswar, who created a nation-wide uproar by leading a batch of four judges to revolt aganst Chief Justice of India Dipak Mishra a few months ago, seems to have joined the anti-Chandrababu Naidu bandwagon in Andhra Pradesh after his retirement.
It was evident from the way Chelameshwar shared the dais with anti-Naidu campaigners including former minister Vadde Sobhanadreeshwar Rao, retired IAS officer Ajeya Kallam, film star R Narayana Murthy and former MP Yarlagadda Lakshmi Prasad at Vijayawada on Sunday.
He was inaugurating a book – Nelavidichi Saagucheyadam Taguna – written by Sobhanadreeshwar Rao.
He asked the people to express their views strongly and openly without any fear of being labelled anti-government or anti-national.
“Not raising the voice out of fear is against the spirit of democracy,” he said.
The fact that Chelameshwar has agreed to preside over the meeting attended by Naidu’s critics and his call to the people to attack the government of the day clearly shows that he is going to be a face of the anti-Naidu forces.
Interestingly, Chelameshwar is said to be distantly related to N T Rama Rao’s family. In fact, there were allegations that he had risen to the level of SC judge only with the support of Naidu.
However, he strongly differed with the TDP chief later for promoting a junior judge like N V Ramana as the SC judge.