India, May 25 -- As the incumbent Chief Justice of India, Surya Kant's term reaches its denouement, it would seem that his future aspirations are increasingly taking control of his being, as is revealed in the aspersions cast on some sections of society. The moment the CJI, the highest judicial office in India, decided to equate the unemployed, RTI activists, and media workers with cockroaches, the issue ceased to be about judicial irritation. It has categorically become a question about the moral collapse of the constitutional language in our country.

Words matter heavily when spoken from the apex. A judge is not a television panellist or a social media troll. As the custodian of the Constitution, the final guarantor of dignity, libert...