BJP president Rajnath Singh and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Saturday took a dig at Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi for his statement over the controversial ordinance regarding convicted legislators.
Rajnath claimed that Rahul criticised the controversial ordinance only after realising that it would never come into force in the face of BJP’s staunch opposition. “When Rahul Gandhi realised that the ordinance will not be implemented after BJP’s opposition as it (BJP) was against it since the beginning and even opposed the move of sending it to the President, he publicly said that it is trash,” Rajnath said, speaking at a function at Rewa.
He also pointed out that Gandhi chose to speak on the issue when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was outside the country. “Instead, he should have spoken to the Prime Minister,” the BJP chief said. Meanwhile, while addressing his ‘Janashirwad Yatra’ in Piparia town in Hoshangabad district, Chouhan said the comments made by Gandhi on the ordinance amounted to an insult of the Prime Minister and his council of ministers. He demanded Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s resignation in the wake of Congress vice-president’s statement.
“If the Prime Minister has a little bit of shame and self-respect, he along with his entire Cabinet, should immediately step down,” Chouhan said. Taking a dig at Rahul, Chouhan said, “Those who don’t have the capability to run the party are now talking about running the nation!”
Earlier in the day, Chouhan had said that the comments made by the Congress vice president on the ordinance amounted to an insult of the Prime Minister and his council of ministers. An ordinance can be good or bad, but those sitting on constitutional posts must always be honoured. The honour of the Prime Minister’s post must be preserved at all costs,” the Chief Minister said in a statement.
In a major embarrassment to the UPA government, Gandhi yesterday dismissed the controversial ordinance to negate the Supreme Court verdict on convicted lawmakers as “complete nonsense” and said the ordinance should be “torn up and thrown away.”