Saturday 07 / September / 2024
New Delhi: Congress on Monday appealed to President Pranab Mukherjee to ensure upholding rule of law in Uttarakhand, saying the party's duly elected government was being "destabilised" through "unconstitutional means" by the Centre and the BJP.
"Any attempt by the Union government at the behest of the BJP to impose President's Rule would be ex facie illegal. Resort to Article 356 of the Constitution... would be a mockery," a high level delegation of senior Congress leaders including A. K.Antony and Ghulam Nabi Azad told the President.
The delegation also comprised Kapil Sibal, Ambika Soni and Motilal Vora.
The leaders said such a move would also allow the ruling dispensation at the Centre and the BJP "in tandem to manufacture a majority through horse trading".
"The Centre is misusing its power. They want to repeat their Arunachal Pradesh experiment in Uttarakhand. This is a new model of democracy and nationalism," Sibal said.
In a memorandum they also complained to the president that attempts are being made to persuade the governor to advance the session.
"The government is trying to persuade the Governor to advance the session to render proceedings under the Xth Schedule (anti-defection law) infructuous.
This is also a Constitutional impropriety," they told the president. They said that the governor has advised the chief minister to prove his strength on the floor of the House on March 28.
"On March 28, the CM will prove on the floor that he has the requisite support of the majority of members of the Legislative Assembly," the memorandum said.
"The date for proving majority was set on March 28. Now, the BJP is trying to put pressure through the Centre and get the date advanced," Azad said.
Soni alleged that MLAs were being taken without their "will" and paraded before the Governor and raised doubts about the security of Congress legislators.
"The BJP, by using the Centre, is trying to dislodge the duly elected Congress governments," Azad added.
When asked whether the passage of the Money Bill in the Uttarakhand Assembly was valid, Sibal said, the decision on this was taken by the speaker under his powers.
"The speaker had already decided about the Finance Bill," he said.
Meanwhile, in the wake of the Uttarakhand crisis, Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu on Monday refuted Congress's allegations that the Centre was trying to topple state governments, and said the opposition was the "mother of defections".
Nine rebel Congress MLAs, along with BJP members, voted against the ruling party in Uttarakhand, putting the fate of the government in crisis.
The state governor has asked Chief Minister Harish Rawat to prove majority even as the BJP has staked claim to form the government.
Attacking the Narendra Modi government, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi had on Sunday said it was trying to topple state governments, and his party would fight this "demagoguery with democracy".
Mounting a counter attack, Naidu said, "Congress is the mother of defections in the country. What they are saying is that if somebody goes to their party from other parties, they call it affection. If Congress people go out of their party, they say it is defection."
Claiming that Congress, when ruling at the Centre, had imposed President's rule around 90 times, Naidu told the opposition party "not give us sermons".
"We do not believe in politics of defection. We believe in democracy, and in democracy, people are free to choose their party," he said.
Rahul in a series of tweets had said, "Toppling elected Govts by indulging in horse trading & blatant misuse of money & muscle, seems to be BJP's new model, after failure in Bihar".
"Congress Party will fight demagoguery with democracy. This attack on our democracy & Constitution, first in Arunachal & now Uttarakhand, is the true face of Modiji's BJP"," he had said.
Naidu listed out instances where Congress had toppled state governments "umpteen number of times", right from Kerala to sensitive states like Kashmir, starting way back in 1959.
"The Congress government at the Centre dismissed E M S Namboodiripad's first democratically-elected Left government in Kerala, despite its majority in the Legislative Assembly in 1959.
In 1984, NTR-led TDP government was toppled despite having the majority and a puppet of Congress was made chief minister.
Karunanidhi's government in Tamil Nadu was dismissed on January 31, 1976, by the Indira Gandhi government, after he challenged the imposition of Emergency in 1975, Naidu said.
"In 1997, Farooq Abdullah government in J&K was toppled. Congress at the centre also toppled Manohar Parrikar led government in Goa. Recently NCP led government in Meghalaya was also toppled by the Congress government at the Centre. Governors during Indira Gandhi's regime became means to topple non-Congress governments, instead of being guardians of the Constitution, Naidu said.
On Congress MLAs leaving their party in Uttarakhand, he said, "If people out of distress and lacklusture leadership leave you, what can we do? How can you blame BJP for this?"
Taking a dig at the Congress, Naidu said, "You invented defections, practiced them, and made perfect the art of defections. You criticizing BJP is nothing but devil quoting the scriptures."
With a week to go for the trial of strength in Uttarakhand, Congress on Monday expelled former chief minister Vijay Bahuguna's son Saket and another leader for "anti-party"
activities.
