PRESS RELEASES
October
13, 2005
|
Honourable
Rashtrapati Ji, Your Excellency, We, the Members of the National Democratic Alliance, have been constrained to approach you once again on a subject of national importance. The elections to the Bihar Legislative Assembly were held in February,2005. The elections produced a result in which the National Democratic Alliance was the largest single pre-poll combination. However, since no party had got an absolute majority, the Legislative Assembly was put under suspended animation in exercise of powers under Article 356. The Government of India had assured the nation through the Home Minister’s speech in Parliament that the object of this exercise was to work out political re-alignment by virtue of which the formation of a government was possible in Bihar. As a result of this assurance given by this Government, the NDA, through its leader Shri Nitish Kumar made efforts for government formation in Bihar. Almost all the 70 NDA MLAs announced support to the Government led by Shri Nitish Kumar. Twenty-one out of the 29 MLAs belonging to the Lok Janashakti Party decided to merge their party with the JD(U). This exercise was to be completed in the morning of 23rd May, 2005. All other smaller parties also announced support to the NDA. In order to prevent the NDA from forming a government, the Governor of Bihar gave a report to the Central Government on 21 May,2005 which report was based on irrelevant and inadequate considerations. In order to prevent the merger of the Lok Janashakti Party MLAs with the NDA constituents and consequently prevent Shri Nitish Kumar from staking a claim on 23rd May morning, the Union Cabinet met on the midnight of 22nd and 23rd May,2005 and recommended to your Excellency a proposal to approve the dissolution of the Bihar Assembly. Your Excellency, at that time being in Moscow, was pleased to accept the recommendation of the Union Cabinet and directed the dissolution of the Assembly. The Hon’ble Supreme Court of India on 7th of October, 2005 has allowed a petition filed by some MLAs of the dissolved assembly holding that the dissolution of the Assembly was unconstitutional. However, the Court has moulded the relief so as not to restore the dissolved assembly. Consequently, the elections are again being held in the State of Bihar. From the above narration it is clear that the Governor of Bihar has acted malafide, on extraneous considerations and has allowed Governor’s office to be used for partisan political purposes. The expeditious quashing of a proclamation under Article 356 is an evidence of this. On 3rd September,2005 when the Election Commission announced the schedule for the forthcoming elections and consequently the Code of Conduct for the elections coming into force, the Governor appointed political activists of the Congress, RJD and the LJP as members of various committees including the Public Service Commission. The Election Commission has confirmed to us in writing that these appointments were made after the coming into force of the Code of Conduct (letter attached) -- {letter with Shri Ramakrishna} There is a genuine apprehension that continuation of Shri Buta Singh in office will not be conducive for the conduct of free and fair elections. We, therefore, request you to recall the pleasure which enables Shri Buta Singh to continue as the Governor of Bihar. The conduct of the Central Government and the Prime Minister has also come in for critical comment. The Prime Minister misled the whole country by alleging that Bihar was witnessing “horse trading of the worst kind” and hence dissolution of the Assembly was becoming necessary. The Central Government could not produce a shred of evidence in support of this assertion of the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister and the Union Council of Ministers is guilty of recommending to you the dissolution of the Assembly on the basis of an advice which was based on irrelevant and non-existent considerations. To allege that there was a break down of constitutional machinery in Bihar which was not borne out of the facts since Shri Nitish Kumar enjoyed the support of almost 135 MLAs who on 10 June,2005 marched to the Rashtrapati Bhavan to present themselves before you. The meeting of the Union Cabinet was convened at midnight obviously to prevent Shri Nitish Kumar from making a claim on the morning of 23rd May, 2005. The issue of serious concern is that a government headed by a Prime Minister which misleads the nation and misleads the President of India has no moral authority to continue in office. We have been constrained to bring these facts to your notice since the Governor of Bihar and the Union Government are guilty of violation of constitutional norms. Their continuation in office is a threat to constitutionalism. We, therefore, urge you to recall the Governor of Bihar and advise the Prime Minister to tender his resignation owning responsibility for this fraud on the Constitution. Thanking you, Yours sincerely,
(letter attached) -- {letter with Shri Ramakrishna} |
NDA
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