Tuesday 23 / April / 2024
Itanagar/New Delhi: Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Wednesday termed imposition of President's rule as the "darkest" day in the history of Arunachal Pradesh.
Expressing solidarity with ruling Congress in the state, party s women wing President Fauzia Khan told reporters at Arunachal Press Club here that the party would protest the hasty decision of the Centre.
"The political situation in the state is very delicate and democracy has been sidelined," she said adding, the party is with Congress.
Criticising Governor Jyoti Prashad Rajkhowa for his decision to advance the assembly session, Khan alleged that the Governor had transformed the Raj Bhawan into the office of BJP.
"This is no more a local issue but a national issue. If Raj Bhawan works as an office of BJP, it is very damaging for a democratic country," she said adding, the Governor cannot summon an assembly session without consulting the council of ministers.
"The Governor is supposed to act on the advice of the council of ministers. But when he acts as an RSS agent, it is very destructive," she added.
When her attention was drawn to the feud among ruling Congress MLAs which led to the crisis, Khan said dissidence among party MLAs was a different issue but dissident activities being engineered by another political party had created chaos in the peaceful state.
Asked on the cases being in the Supreme Court on the issue, the NCP leader said that the party would honour whatever judgement the court would pronounce.
On her party s stand if mid-term poll is announced, Khan said that political parties are always ready for any polls.
Meanwhile, Congress on Wednesday said it has an "open mind" in reaching out to party rebels in Arunachal Pradesh, insisting that even now it commanded a majority in the northeastern state which was brought under President's rule on Tuesday night.
AICC General Secretary V. Narainsamy and party spokesman Raj Babbar, however, refrained from making any comment on President Pranab Mukherjee giving his approval to the recommendation of the Union Cabinet to bring the state under central rule.
"We do not want to make any comment on that because whatever the President decided, it is on record," Narainsamy said at the AICC briefing.
Babbar also spoke likewise on queries on the issue.
Replying to questions whether the party will approach rebel MLAs, he remarked, "We have an open mind. We will not shut our doors."
The Congress general secretary dismissed suggestions whether the party would parade its MLAs before the President.
He said that Supreme Court judgement in the SR Bommai case has made it clear that Raj Bhawan is not the place where the majority has to be proved.
At the same time, both the Congress leaders claimed that the party has majority in the Assembly.
"Take the case of 47 MLAs (out of a total 60)- they are all of the Congress. None of them have joined any other political party. 14 have been disqualified by the Speaker which was upheld by the Guwahati High Court."
"The remaining 31 are Congress-men even today. How can the BJP say that we have no majority? This all is ploy created by the BJP to dislodge the duly-elected Congress government in the state," Narainsamy said.
He expressed concern over appointment of only RSS-backed, RSS-minded persons as governors in the northeast whether it is Nagaland, Tripura, Meghalaya or even Assam.
"This shows the sinister design of Narendra Modi government to dislodge constitutionally elected Congress governments in the northeastern state. They wanted to test and Arunachal Pradesh is the first case," he added.
"Congress has full faith in the judicial process and in Supreme Court, which is currently hearing the matter. Constitutional norms, democracy and federalism will win at the altar of justice. Conspiracy to debunk democracy and murder of federalism will be defeated substantively," Narainsamy and Babbar said in a statement.
