The BJP MlAs met Governor KK Paul at Rajbhawan on Saturday and asked him to dismiss the Harish Rawat Government, alleging that an MlA had been allowed to be present in a Cabinet meeting held on September 30 with the CM in the chair in flagrant contravention of the constitutional norms. The saffron MlAs said that the incident had unleashed a constitutional crisis as it was tantamount to trivialising the Constitution.
Mention worthy, the CM had convened the Cabinet meeting on September 30 to hail the surgical strike conducted by the Indian Army in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir to have the terror camps dismantled. The unanimous opinion that emerged of the meeting was that more such strikes were needed to rid India of the scourge of Pakistan-triggered terrorism. However, an MlA getting into the Cabinet meeting was unnoticed perhaps because of the emotions that dominated it.
Observers say that the BJP latching on to the matter and going to the extent of demanding dismissal of the state government has shown that the Opposition party is becoming desperate to come back to power.
“However, it is surprising that the matter went unnoticed. Harish Rawat was the Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister before he started his innings as the CM of the State. He is well-versed with the norms that regulate a Cabinet meeting. Perhaps emotions overshadowed things that day,” said an observer.
The BJP MlAs said the matter of the MlA sneaking into a Cabinet meeting had denigrated the dignity of the Cabinet that is running the State aside from trifling with the Constitution. BJP spokesperson Munna Singh Chouhan, who was part of the delegation led by State BJP general secretary Naresh Bansal, alleged that by doing this they had violated the 164(1) of Indian Constitution.
“The Governor administers oath of office to the Ministers but not to the MlAs or parliamentary secretaries. Things are now clear why we are demanding dismissal of the State Government. The matter makes it clear that the State Government has scant regard for the constitutional norms, something that warrants that the Harish Rawat Government should be immediately dismissed,” Chouhan said.