Cong goes hammer and tongs against BJP-led Govt

By Our Staff Reporter
IMPHAL, Mar 2: The Indian National Congress (INC) has lambasted the State’s BJP-led Government for condoning and not disqualifying the 12 MLAs who earlier served as Parliamentary Secretaries even after knowing that keeping them as MLAs is both illegal and unconstitutional.  
Speaking to media persons at their New Delhi office today, AICC spokesman Dr Abhishek Singhvi said that the BJP-led Government has started another game of delay after the matter of disqualifying the 12 MLAs was procrastinated for around five months.
The MLAs who must be disqualified for holding office of profit are still kept as key functionaries of the BJP-led Government even though it is clearly illegal and unconstitutional, Dr Singhvi said.  
He recalled that Congress party emerged as the single largest party in the 11th Manipur Legislative Assembly election held in 2017.
However, BJP bought some MLAs as commodities and forcibly reduced Congress to an artificial minority by taking recourse to all kinds of mean and unethical measures, he said.
It was a blatant act of twisting and distorting democracy, he decried.
Compelled by their dirty politics, the BJP-led Government appointed 12 MLAs as Parliamentary Secretaries as soon as the Government was set up, Dr Singhvi said.
The 12 MLAs did not serve long as Parliamentary Secretaries because the Supreme Court passed a ruling in July 2017 in connection with case pertaining to Assam which categorically stated that laws for appointment of Parliamentary or Assembly Secretary should be done by the Central Government, the AICC spokesman said.
Not long after the Parliamentary Secretaries were removed, Congress party filed a petition at the High Court of Manipur.
The High Court passed a judgement in September last year and struck down both Manipur Parliamentary Secretary (Appointment, Salary and Allowances and Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 2012, and the Manipur Parliamentary (Appointment, Salary and Allowances and Miscellaneous Provisions) Repealing Act, 2018 as illegal and unconstitutional.
As the 12 MLAs had held office of profit (Parliamentary Secretary), they must be disqualified under Articles 190, 191 and 192, Dr Singhvi asserted.
As per norms and convention, a complaint must be lodged to the Governor. The Governor should decide whether the MLAs should be disqualified or not after seeking opinion of the Election Commission of India (ECI).
As demanded by the convention, Congress lodged a complaint to the Governor of Manipur, the AICC spokesman said.
However, both the Governor and the ECI have not been taking any concrete decision on the issue for a protracted period, he decried.
According to party colleagues from Manipur, the ECI has already sent a letter to the Governor of Manipur  but there has been no response. This is a big question, he said.
Now the ‘defeated party’ has resorted to another delaying tactics by filing an appeal at the Supreme Court around a week back, Dr Singhvi said.
AICC secretary Pranav Jha, CLP leader Okram Ibobi, CWC member Gaikhangam and MPCC president K Govindas were also present at the press meet.