Imposition of President’s Rule in Uttarakhand today kicked up a political storm, with Congress dubbing it as “murder of democracy” and “unconstitutional” step even as the Centre justified the action, arguing that Harish Rawat government was “unconstitutional” and “immoral”. Rawat, who lost his government, condemned the imposition of President’s rule and said Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s hands were dipped in the “blood” of the “trampled” aspirations of the people. Alleging that central rule was a result of a “pre-meditated conspiracy” hatched by the Centre to dislodge a democratically-elected Congress government in the state, Rawat said in Dehradun that the BJP was “thirsty for his blood” right from the day he assumed office on February one, 2014.
A host of Congress leaders slammed the Modi government over the development. Congress spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi termed the action as “murder of democracy” and “subversion” of the Constitution. He said the people as well has courts are likely to take a “very dim view” of the development. The Party’s chief spokesman Randeep Surjewala said Congress will fight it “politically, constitutionally and avail all legal rights that the party has got with it”. “It is not surprising…The real desire of the government of India is to bring down duly-elected governments of small states in an undemocratic and unconstitutional manner,” Congress general secretary Ambika Soni said. “It’s a blatant and brazen display of authoritarian, anti-democratic and anti-Constitutional mindset of the Modi government,” said Ghulam Nabi Azad, Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha.
Today’s action, he said, is a grim reminder of the threat the democratic institutions of the country are facing and accused the Modi government of having breached all records in trampling the democratic norms and Constitutional traditions. The Centre, on its part, justified the decision, contending that there was “no better example” for invoking Article 356 as the Rawat government was “unconstitutional” and “immoral” since March 18 when it “lost” majority in the Assembly. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said there were “cogent, relevent and extremely important grounds” on which the Union Cabinet came to the decision. “There is no better example than this for invoking Article 356 of the Constitution. For the last nine days, every day provisions of Constitution are being murdered. “It was not only appropriate but the demand of the time that such an immoral government did not continue in Uttarakhand which has lost its majority. There was complete breakdown of the Constitution in Uttarakhand,” he said.
