Rahul Gandhi immediately took to Twitter, training his guns on the BJP-led government.
The Supreme Court's historic and significant order on the colonial-era sedition law in the country a few hours back has already triggered a war of words between the ruling BJP and opposition Congress. In a series of tweets, Union law minister Kiren Rijiju called the Congress "the antithesis of freedom, democracy and respect for institutions" after former Congress chief and Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi took a jibe at the Centre over "crushing the truth".
The controversial sedition law will be paused while the government reviews it, the court said today and allowed those jailed for sedition to approach courts for bail. The Centre had argued against the stay on the law, arguing that it would review it and a police officer of the level of Superintendent or above could decide whether a sedition charge should be filed in the meanwhile.
Rahul Gandhi immediately took to Twitter to share the news while training his guns on the BJP-led union government, without naming anyone.
"Speaking the truth is patriotism, not treason. Speaking the truth is love for the nation, not treason. Listening to the truth is the duty to the nation. Crushing the truth is arrogance towards the nation," he wrote in Hindi while sharing the news.
Mr Rijiju hit out at Mr Gandhi, pointing out instances when the grand old party and its celebrated leaders were less than exemplars of free speech.
"Empty words by @RahulGandhi If there is one party that is the antithesis of freedom, democracy and respect for institutions, it is the Indian National Congress
This Party has always stood with Breaking India forces and left no opportunity to divide India," the minister tweeted while quoting Mr Gandhi's jibe.
He then went on to mention the first amendment to the Constitution brought in by the first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. It sought to limit the fundamental rights to protect against "abuse of freedom of speech and expression". Mr Rijiju also mentioned that Mr Nehru had dismissed the elected government of Kerala.
The Law Minister also referred to former PM Indira Gandhi's imposition of the Emergency, frequently using Article 356 which gives the Centre control over states, and her attempts to weaken the judiciary.
Continuing his blistering attack in subsequent tweets, he also pointed out that "it was the Indira Gandhi Government which made Section 124A a cognisable offence for the first time in India's history".
In more recent examples, he targetted former Congress minister in the UPA P Chidambaram, saying it "has the worst track record of filing sedition cases".
Right after the order, Mr Rijiju had said while he "respected the court and its independence", there is a "Lakshman Rekha" that cannot be crossed.
"We've made our positions very clear and also informed the court about the intention of our PM (Prime Minister Narendra Modi). We respect the court and its independence. But there's a 'Lakshman Rekha' that must be respected by all organs of the state in letter and spirit. We have to ensure that we respect the provisions of the Indian Constitution as well as existing laws," the Law Minister told reporters.
"We respect each other, the court should respect government, legislature, so as government should also respect court. We have clear demarcation of boundary and that Lakshman Rekha should not be crossed by anybody," Mr Rijiju added.
As he made the sharp comment, Mr Rijiju evaded a question on whether he believed the Supreme Court's decision was wrong.