NEW DELHI: Justifying the imposition of President’s rule in Uttarakhand, Union minister M Venkaiah Naidu today slammed the Congress leadership, asking it to “introspect” why its legislators are leaving the party instead of blaming the central government.
Naidu was also dismissive of the remark of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who said that the Modi government wants to topple the AAP government in Delhi.
“I saw the Delhi chief minister saying this that after Uttaranchal, then Himachal, then Delhi… They are trying to divert the attention of the people from their failures and then trying to put the blame on the Centre. The Centre has no role at all. These people, who are talking of murder of democracy, it is like shedding crocodile tears,” he said.
Asserting that the Centre has no habit of pulling down any government and it is “all false propaganda”, Naidu blamed the internal crisis in Uttarakhand on Congress.
“If any party’s MLAs fall out with the party how can one blame the Centre. It has become fashion to criticize the Centre for each and everything,” Naidu said.
Seeking to shift the blame on the leadership of Congress for “defection” of its MLAs, Naidu said, “The Congress leadership must introspect why its legislators are defecting.
The Congress legislators are fast losing confidence in their leadership.”
Congress has accused the Centre of having “murdered democracy” by imposing President’s rule in Uttarakhand.
Rejecting the charge, Naidu said, “Congress and its supporters dismissed 91 non-Congress governments and now they are giving us sermons.
“It is the Congress party which has always encouraged defection and they have propounded a new theory, if others join them its affection, if people go out it, it is defection,” Naidu said taking potshots at the opposition party.
Citing constitutional breakdown in the state, Naidu dismissed opposition’s criticism over the prorogation of the Budget session of Parliament and insisted that it was done to give finances to the state.
“There is no logic in the criticism of the opposition. A situation is created in a state where there is constitutional breakdown, the state could not get its Appropriation Bill passed. If the Appropriation Bill is not passed, the employees of the state will not get their salary from April 1 and the development of the state will come to a standstill.
“So it is the duty of the Government of India, as a custodian of the Constitution to take care of such a situation and you cannot do it, if Lok Sabha is not prorogued. So we have proposed to prorogue the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha,” Naidu said. Justifying the decision on prorogation, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Naidu said that he was not able to understand the criticism of the government on this count.
“Criticizing the government just for the heck of criticism it is not good,” he said.
At a time when the NDA government is facing combined opposition attack on the Uttarakhand issue with parties, including those from the Left calling the Centre’s decision to bring the hill state under President’s rule “murder of democracy”, Naidu said, “The first Communist government was formed by EMS Namboodiripad in 1959 in Kerala and it was dismissed. Communist parties are now joining chorus with Congress. That is also a surprising thing.”
Blaming the Uttarakhand political crisis on “internal problems” of the Congress party, Naidu asserted that the NDA government has “not done anything”.
Naidu, at the same time, said that there was “no animosity” towards Congress.
“We are not enemies. We are even trying to have friendship with Pakistan, so where is the question of animosity here.
They (Congress) should respect mandate of the people, which is for development and the government is taking the development of the country on priority.
“So the opposition should not try to make everything political, they should be constructive,” he said.
Replying to questions about Bills being stuck in Parliament, he said that the government was keen for their passage in second part of the Budget session.
“No no, we have not given up the second part of the Parliament session, we have just prorogued it to enable this situation to be met as necessary. Even the Enemy Property Bill which has been approved by Lok Sabha has been referred to the Select Committee by Rajya Sabha.
“By April 4, it will lapse unless I go for an ordinance.
We will take a call once the issue is over. I am keen that we would like to have GST, the Bankruptacy Bill and other important bills at the earliest,” Naidu said.
He recalled that even the Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad had earlier said said that the ordinance on the Enemy Property Bill can be re-issued after proroguing the Upper House. “For that purpose we have done it,” he said about proroguing of Rajya Sabha.
The CCPA had yesterday given its nod for prorogation of Rajya Sabha to enable re-issuing of the ordinance bringing changes in the Enemy Property Act, 1968, which is pending in the Upper House after being passed by Lok Sabha.
The ordinance for amendments in the 47-year-old Act was promulgated on January 8, this year. The Bill to replace the ordinance was passed by Lok Sabha on March 9 with the government overruling demands by some opposition parties that it be sent to the Standing Committee.
However, it could not get Rajya Sabha’s nod and the Enemy Property (Amendment and Validation) Bill, 2016, was finally referred to a Select Comittee.
As per the Constitution, an ordinance lapses after 42 days from the day a session begins unless a Bill to replace it is cleared by Parliament.–PTI
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