Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday said the Congress “plunged Uttarakhand into a serious Constitutional crisis” by continuing a Government which should have quit after the failure of the Appropriation Bill.
In a Facebook post titled ‘A State Without a Budget’, he said the Speaker was murdering democracy by first declaring a Budget rejected by majority MlAs as passed and then by disqualifying MlAs even after the Assembly was put under suspended animation.
“To further complicate the crisis,” the senior BJP leader said, “the Chief Minister started allurement, horse-trading and disqualification with a view to altering the composition of the House”.
“After the Assembly was put under suspended animation and the decision made public, the Speaker decided to disqualify some Members. The constitutional breakdown has been compounded further by this action,” he said.
Recalling the events, the Finance Minister said the Congress Government in the State was reduced to a minority on March 18 when 35 MlAs in the Assembly voted against the Appropriation Bill and 32 in favour. These 35 MlAs comprised 27 from the BJP and the rest were rebel Congress legislators.
“On March 18, the majority was declared to be a minority and vice-versa, and on March 27, the composition of the House was attempted to be changed in violation of the Constitution to convert a minority into a majority.
“This is an unprecedented case of a Speaker declaring a failed Appropriation Bill as passed and then failing to certify falsehood. This leaves the State without any approved financial expenditure with effect from April 1, 2016,” he said.
Asserting that there was no better evidence of a breakdown of Constitution than this, he said, “The Congress Government of Uttarakhand was murdering democracy every day from the 18th of March till the 27th of March.
“It is now incumbent upon the Central Government to ensure that steps are taken under Article 357 to authorise expenditure of the State with effect from 1st April 2016” as the state cannot spend in next fiscal without the legislature approving the Appropriation
Bill, he said.
Jaitley said Article 356 of the Constitution, imposing President’s Rule in a State, can be invoked only if the President is satisfied that there are grounds for believing that the governance of the State cannot be carried on in accordance with the Constitution.
The Congress in Uttarakhand split after a section of the leadership alleged that they were “dissatisfied both with the Chief Minister and the central leadership of the Congress party”. The split, he said, was on account of reasons internal to the Congress party.