The State Congress is now worried as the constitutional bench of the apex court, while delivering its order on the impasse in Arunachal Pradesh, has made it amply clear that the Speaker, against whom a no-confidence motion has been moved, cannot take decisions in the House. It further said that all the orders passed by the Speaker facing no-confidence motion would be treated as null and void.
The Congress camp was elated just after the order was pronounced, hailing it as a victory for them in view of the Centre’s ‘bungling’ with the President’s Rule in Uttarakhand. However, the elation proved short-lived as they scrutinised the order more deeply.
The State BJP camp which was demoralised with the Supreme Court’s order on Arunachal Pradesh initially has turned upbeat with the court passing strictures on the Speaker facing no-confidence motion. Enthused by the implication inherent in the order vis-a-vis their disqualification by the Speaker against whom no-confidence motion was tabled on March 18, the nine dissident Congress leaders, who later switched to BJP, have challenged the Speaker’s order of disqualifying them. The Chief Justice of India is to hear the case on Wednesday.
Since the order came the Speaker Govind Singh Kunjwal has been under fire from the Opposition. He is being dubbed as the stooge of the Chief Minister Harish Rawat who, then a Union Minister, had foisted him as the Speaker by flexing his muscles to the Vijay Bahuguna regime in 2012.
“The Speaker paid back his debt to the CM by ordering prompt disqualification of the nine dissidents. He knew it quite well that the Harish Rawat Government was reduced to minority once the nine MlAs raised the banner of revolt. He had expressed his gratitude to his mentor at the expense of the exalted constitutional norms his chair represents,” said a BJP leader.
Notably, though 35 out of 67 MlAs present in the House on the fateful evening of March 18 were vociferous against the appropriation Bill while demanding division of vote on it, the Speaker had declared the Bill passed by voice vote.
Thereafter, the delegation comprising 26 BJP MlAs, excluding Ganesh Joshi who was behind bars on the Shaktimaan case and the rebel MlA Bhimlal Arya, along with the nine dissident Congress MlAs paraded before the Governor, showing their collective strength in the House. Besides, they collectively submitted a no-confidence notice against the Speaker to the Governor the same evening following which the Governor had asked CM Rawat to prove his majority in floor test slated on March 28.
“Now, things are clear in the light of what Supreme Court says on the role of the Speaker facing no-confidence motion. We are looking forward to the apex court scrapping the Speaker’s order to disqualify the dissident MlAs under anti-defection act. Once this happens the dissidents would automatically regain their membership and this would culminate in the fall of the Rawat Government. This would be a kind of Nemesis for them,” said a senior State BJP leader .
The Congress camp has, on the other hand, chosen to keep its fingers crossed, though nervousness of what is awaiting them in the Supreme Court is manifest in it.