07-30-2007, 07:45 PM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Â <b>Sonia, PM are behind Goa conspiracy: BJP </b>
Pioneer.com
Yogesh Vajpeyi | New Delhi
Subvert process with help of pygmies in constitutional positions
Outraged by the blatant subversion of the Constitution in Goa, the BJP on Monday dubbed Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as the principal authors of the "conspiracy" and vowed to fight it in the court, the legislature and the streets.Â
"In an Assembly of 40 members, a Government clinging to the support of a clear minority of 18 has been perpetuated because those who perpetrated this assault on democracy and the Constitution had the extra-constitutional support of Gandhi and Singh," Senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley told mediapersons.
Jaitley, who is also a senior advocate in the Supreme Court, said that the Goa Speaker had no right to restrain three MLAs from voting only on the basis of purported disqualification petitions without adjudicating the matter.
The fact that he did not allow Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Manohar Parrikar even to raise a point of order in the State Assembly and cast his vote without a division to ascertain whether it was a tie itself demonstrated that the Speaker's action was mala fide, the BJP leader said.
<b>Alleging that the Congress president and the Prime Minister were the "real architects" of Monday's developments in the Goa Assembly, Jaitley said they had misused the agency of the Speaker for artificially and illegally barring three MLAs from voting in the trial of strength.</b>
<b>"The Speaker happens to be a former Chief Minister who is also an aspirant future Chief Minister. This is what happens when pygmies are entrusted with high constitutional offices,"</b> the BJP leader said.
He said Gandhi and Singh had been instrumental in "installing such individuals in Constitutional offices so that the Constitutional prerogative can be subverted."
<b>Jaitley said there was no provision in the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution under which a Speaker could "restrain" a member of a legislature from exercising his rights.</b>
<b>"If he receives a complaint, he has to go through due process of law and seek a reply from the legislator concerned before taking any decision about his disqualification.</b>
Instead of adhering to the well settled principle of natural justice, Goa Speaker Rane went ahead and barred three MLAs from voting immediately after receiving the complaint," he said.
He was confident that Rane's action would be held unconstitutional. "The Speaker has institutionalised a Government without a mandate," Jaitley said, adding that the party would take stock of the situation and devise its future course of action soon.
While the party plans to knock on the doors of the judiciary without delay, it is also preparing to raise the issue in the Monsoon session of Parliament starting next month and launching a nation-wide movement to expos<b>e how the UPA Government had been consistently subverting the Constitution and other democratic institutions, Jaitley hinted</b>.
<b>"Similar tactics were adopted by the UPA Government in Jharkhand and Bihar. And the ruling alliance received slaps from the judiciary as well as the people for its misdeeds. What it did in Goa on Monday is bound to rebound on the Congress in the near future," </b>he asserted.
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Pioneer.com
Yogesh Vajpeyi | New Delhi
Subvert process with help of pygmies in constitutional positions
Outraged by the blatant subversion of the Constitution in Goa, the BJP on Monday dubbed Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as the principal authors of the "conspiracy" and vowed to fight it in the court, the legislature and the streets.Â
"In an Assembly of 40 members, a Government clinging to the support of a clear minority of 18 has been perpetuated because those who perpetrated this assault on democracy and the Constitution had the extra-constitutional support of Gandhi and Singh," Senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley told mediapersons.
Jaitley, who is also a senior advocate in the Supreme Court, said that the Goa Speaker had no right to restrain three MLAs from voting only on the basis of purported disqualification petitions without adjudicating the matter.
The fact that he did not allow Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Manohar Parrikar even to raise a point of order in the State Assembly and cast his vote without a division to ascertain whether it was a tie itself demonstrated that the Speaker's action was mala fide, the BJP leader said.
<b>Alleging that the Congress president and the Prime Minister were the "real architects" of Monday's developments in the Goa Assembly, Jaitley said they had misused the agency of the Speaker for artificially and illegally barring three MLAs from voting in the trial of strength.</b>
<b>"The Speaker happens to be a former Chief Minister who is also an aspirant future Chief Minister. This is what happens when pygmies are entrusted with high constitutional offices,"</b> the BJP leader said.
He said Gandhi and Singh had been instrumental in "installing such individuals in Constitutional offices so that the Constitutional prerogative can be subverted."
<b>Jaitley said there was no provision in the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution under which a Speaker could "restrain" a member of a legislature from exercising his rights.</b>
<b>"If he receives a complaint, he has to go through due process of law and seek a reply from the legislator concerned before taking any decision about his disqualification.</b>
Instead of adhering to the well settled principle of natural justice, Goa Speaker Rane went ahead and barred three MLAs from voting immediately after receiving the complaint," he said.
He was confident that Rane's action would be held unconstitutional. "The Speaker has institutionalised a Government without a mandate," Jaitley said, adding that the party would take stock of the situation and devise its future course of action soon.
While the party plans to knock on the doors of the judiciary without delay, it is also preparing to raise the issue in the Monsoon session of Parliament starting next month and launching a nation-wide movement to expos<b>e how the UPA Government had been consistently subverting the Constitution and other democratic institutions, Jaitley hinted</b>.
<b>"Similar tactics were adopted by the UPA Government in Jharkhand and Bihar. And the ruling alliance received slaps from the judiciary as well as the people for its misdeeds. What it did in Goa on Monday is bound to rebound on the Congress in the near future," </b>he asserted.
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