The Hindu : National : CPI criticises BJP stand on removal of Governors

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Monday, Jul 05, 2004

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National

CPI criticises BJP stand on removal of Governors

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI, JULY 4. The national secretary of the Communist Party of India, D. Raja, today said that the Bharatiya Janata Party had "no locus standi" to oppose the dismissal of Governors of four States.

He also flayed the BJP president, M. Venkaiah Naidu's remark that the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government had "given burial" to the recommendations of the Sarkaria Commission with regard to guaranteeing the Governors' tenure of office by sacking the Governors of Goa, Gujarat, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.

Mr. Raja said here that during the previous National Democratic Alliance (NDA) rule, the BJP did not bother about the Sarkaria panel's recommendations.

The then Vajpayee Government had acted in a "highly prejudiced manner by appointing persons, known for their ideological and political affinity to the Sangh Parivar", to gubernatorial posts and various positions in academic bodies.

Shortly after becoming Home Minister in 1998, L.K. Advani demanded the resignation of some Governors on the ground that they were appointed by the previous caretaker Government, he said.

With the change of Government following the Lok Sabha poll, the Governors of the four States should have quit on their own, he opined.

Asked about the former Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee's demand that the Home Minister should apologise to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) following reports that the Governors were dismissed because of their old association with the Sangh, he said there was no need for that.

On the issue of "tainted" Ministers in the UPA Government, Mr. Raja said as a matter of fact, this could have been avoided and there was nothing wrong in discussing the issue "in a larger perspective".

But the BJP had "no moral authority to raise the issue", as the NDA Government had Ministers, "who were charge-sheeted in the Babri Masjid demolition case and Narendra Modi continued as Chief Minister of Gujarat, despite the Supreme Court's indictment", he said.

Mr. Raja said some judicial mechanism must be evolved to ensure speedy disposal of cases against such Ministers, as the existing laws could not prevent them from contesting elections and getting elected to Parliament.

Referring to reports that the BJP and its allies might boycott the Railway Budget, he said that earlier they did not allow the President's address to be discussed.

The BJP had been playing a "negative role" in Parliament. The party's attitude only betrayed its "failure to reconcile itself with the reality that the people's verdict had gone against it", he said.

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