A day after his disqualification as a Rajya Sabha MP while rebel JD (U) leader Sharad Yadav on Tuesday asserted he will ‘continue to fight to save democracy’, the left parties raised questions over the decision by Vice President and chairman of the Upper House M Venkaiah Naidu.
CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury said the decision to disqualify Yadav and another rebel JD(U) leader Ali Anwar ‘casts a shadow’. His CPI counterpart S Sudhakar Reddy contested the view that Yadav had defected.
Yechury questioned the ‘mind-boggling’ speed with which the decision was taken. “like Ceasar’s wife, the Rajya Sabha Chairman’s decision must be above questioning, but the disqualification of Rajya Sabha MPs Sharad Yadav and Ali Anwar casts a shadow,” Yechury tweeted.
Yadav and Anwar were disqualified from the Rajya Sabha on Monday. “The petition was filed on September 2 and the decision came out on December 4. The speed is mind-boggling. Similar cases are pending in lok Sabha for over a year. So political affiliation is the only thing that mattersIJ” the left leader asked.
For his part, Sharad tweeted, “I am disqualified from Rajya Sabha as Mahagathbandan which was formed to defeat NDA in Bihar & after 18 months to break it & joining NDA to remain in power & if to speak against this undemocratic style is my fault I will continue to fight to save democracy.”
Yadav and Ali said that their removal from the upper house of Parliament was the price they are paying for questioning the “undemocratic style” of functioning of his party led by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
“If I am disqualified from Rajya Sabha because I respect democratic values, follow d party constitution & respect d mandate given by 11 crore people of Bihar for Mahagathbandan then I will continue to do so not only for d people of Bihar but d country as a whole,” (sic) said another tweet by the veteran who was a Minister in Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s NDA-I Government.
Yadav referred to the fact that his party chief Nitish Kumar decided in July to break from the ‘grand alliance’ with the Congress and the RJD and join the BJP-led NDA. Yadav claims this decision was taken unilaterally by Nitish.
Yadav has been critical from the start of Nitish’s decision to join the NDA. And the JD (U) had, in August itself, decided to remove Yadav as parliamentary party leader following his criticism of the party high command.
Naidu said in his communication that both leaders ceased to be Rajya Sabha members with immediate effect. He agreed to the JD(U)’s contention that the two senior leaders had ‘voluntarily given up’ their membership by defying their party’s directives and attending events of opposition parties. He also issued directions that disqualification of a member of legislature should be decided by the presiding officer within three months to thwart political defections.
However, according to Reddy, Yadav had not defected. “Sharad Yadav did not join any other party for any personal gains, but continued his firm stand on secularism with JD(U) flag,” he said in a statement.
Most State units of the JD(U) are with Yadav though a majority of MPs and MlAs are with Nitish Kumar, he said.