Amid ongoing political crisis in Rajasthan, the Congress on Sunday slammed the state’s governor Kalraj Mishra for not acceding to its request of convening the Assembly session. In the meantime, the party has also decided to launch massive country-wide agitations in front of different Raj Bhavans against the BJP’s alleged anti-democratic and anti-constitutional actions.
Congress leader and senior lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi on Sunday trained his gun at the Governor and said that he was not taking decisions in accordance with the Constitution. “Governors are bound to listen to the aid and advice of the state government but he is listening to a voice that is from the government at the Centre. Constitutional authorities—be it governors, courts or central government—are supposed not only to know their constitutional roles and boundaries but to scrupulously follow them in letter and spirit and promote the true intent of the framers who designed them,” he said.
The Rajasthan Governor on Friday had refused to convene an assembly session as demanded by state’s CM Ashok Gehlot. In his response to the request, the Governor asked a few questions and also mentioned the issue of the ongoing disqualification case against rebel Sachin Pilot and his 18 supporting MLAs in the Supreme Court.
While giving a rebuttal to this point, Singhvi said that the court cases in the Rajasthan High court and in the Supreme Court had nothing to do with the convening of the Assembly in the state. “Is it common sensical conceivable that any governor ever should refuse or delay the holding of a floor test, which truly determines who has the numbers and objections/ queries, intended to delay and postpone the floor test, not let the cat out of the bag as to who really has the numbers?”, he added.
Singhvi had argued on behalf of Rajasthan Assembly Speaker C.P. Joshi in the High Court in case of disqualification in which the High Court ruled to maintain status quo which was seen as interim relief for Pilot Camp. However Singhvi said, “Is the Governor and his diverse advisors who have generated such queries not aware of established jurisprudence, from the Constituent Assembly to diverse SC judgments, that unequivocally establish that the Governor is powerless and without jurisdiction in matters where he is advised by the State Cabinet?”
Former Congress president and Lok Sabha MP Rahul Gandhi also posted a tweet in this regard. He wrote, “The democracy of India will run with the voice of the people on the basis of the constitution. The people of the country will protect democracy and the constitution by denying the conspiracy of fraud of BJP.”