A day after a rare camaraderie in the Rajya Sabha on the GST Bill, the Opposition and the Government on Thursday were back to taking on each other. The two traded charges over dismissal of Congress dispensations in Arunachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, bringing into close scrutiny the role of Governors as the members accused them of being partisan most of the times.
While the main Opposition party Congress alleged “trampling” of democracy by the BJP-led Government, the Treasury Bench hit back by reminding that Congress had “butchered” democracy by misusing Article 356 about 100 times. The clash took place as the House took up a short duration discussion on ‘Developments in Uttarakhand and Arunachal Pradesh leading to change in Governments there and the role of Governors in the respective States’.
Initiating the debate, Deputy leader of the Congress Anand Sharma said whatever happened in the two States was a “brazen violation of Constitution” and “insult to democracy”. “What happened in Arunachal late last year followed by Uttarakhand in Janauary this year shocked the country and invited censure of the Supreme Court and High Court of Uttarakhand,” he said.
Citing the developments in both the States, Sharma alleged that the Governors in both the States “willingly became tools to pursue nefarious agenda of the ruling party”.
Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu intervened to say that it is “the devil quoting the scriptures” which was however objected to by the Congress after which Deputy Chairman PJ Kurien said he will examine whether it fell under unparliamentary language.
Justifying imposition of President’s rule in Arunachal and then in Uttarakhand, Naidu said there was Constitutional crisis there at that time. He also gave details about how it was misused 12 times till 1967 and was later used umpteen times to topple several elected Governments with the crescendo in 1977.
Soon after this, Prabhat Jha (BJP) said the Congress had no right to charge the BJP as this was the party which had sterilised unmarried youth during Emergency. This provoked protests by Congress MPs.
There was ruckus in the House when Jha said that during the Emergency 2 lakh people had been jailed and there was rampant violation of Constitution with the Government even censoring the media. Kurien then urged members to restore peace.
As the Congress members continued to protest, Kurien warned that he would adjourn the House if the members failed to restore peace and sit down allowing the House to conduct business. The altercation between members of the two major parties escalated to such an extent that the Chair had to reprimand Congress member Mohammad Ali Khan and even threatened that the House would be adjourned for the day if the debate continues in a disorderly way. Order was then restored in the House.
Neeraj Shekhar (SP) said the BJP was committing the same mistakes that the Congress had done. “You fight on politics, you fight on principles, but not personal. What is happening in Uttar PradeshIJ It pains me. You please recall the Governor and send some civilised person,” he said. He wanted apology from both Congress and BJP for misuse of Article 356, while questioning the necessity of having the post of Governor.
D Raja (CPI) termed it as a “serious and constitutional” matter and not an issue between the BJP and the Congress. Dilip Tirkey (BJD) said the smaller parties have been most affected by the Article 356.
Swapan Dasgupta (nominated) said it has become necessary that certain code of conduct should be spelt for Governor. He said the Governor should be completely detached from politics, adding it is wrong to blame “one type of belief” as there was no RSS pracharak when a Communist Government was dissolved in 1959.