Stepping up moral pressure on the Speaker Govind Singh Kunjwal, knowing well that on his role hinges the fate of the embattled Harish Rawat Government, the State BJP’s principal spokesperson Munna Singh Chouhan said on Monday that they expected him to act impartially.
“We hope that he would abide by the constitutional principles of impartiality unlike the previous occasion when he threw the norms to the winds to flaunt his loyalty to the CM,” he said.
“It is not for nothing that the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker have been debarred from casting votes on no-confidence motions. It is meant to keep the dignity of the exalted chairs unblemished. However, the Speaker has been enabled to vote if things end in a tie between the ruling dispensation and the Opposition. The Constitution warrants that the Speaker acts with utmost discretion and not as an appendage of the ruling dispensation,” he said.
Observers say that the Speaker bent on invoking the Anti—Defection law against the rebel Congress MlAs has somehow unnerved the Opposition. Hence the tactic of putting moral pressure on him to refrain him from siding with the ruling dispensation, they say.
Sharpening his arsenal against the Speaker, Chouhan said that Kunjwal had been given chair by then Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna under the pressure of then Cabinet Minister of the Centre Harish Rawat. “This can account for his eagerness to return the favour at the cost of the Constitutional norms. Now the Speaker is slamming the Centre. He is giving suggestions on whether Gairsain should be make capital of the State. This smacks of arrant politicking. If there is an iota of self-respect left in him he should immediately quit his post much before the BJP-tabled no-confidence is taken up by the House. He would be then free to wander about, tied to the coattails of his mentor, the CM” he said.
Referring to the recent JNU row without citing it, the State BJP leader said that the Congress Government gagging the voice of the MlAs has made the party’s claim to fight for the freedom of expression ring hollow. “Things happening here are reminding us of the Emergency days when the Opposition was sought to be bulldozed into submission. The BJP activists are being arrested for a trifle like burning the CM in his effigy, Chouhan commented, adding that retributive justice was what is presently taking on the Harish Rawat dispensation.”
JNU incident, Chouhan said that as you are projecting themselves as patron of freedom of speech but when BJP brought division of vote on appropriation bill then you did not hesitate while suppressing the voice of opposition.
These days CM is trying to give us reminder about emergency, which congress had imposed in 1975 because CM has pressed their police to stop BJP workers in while litting the dummy of Chief Minister.