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| Speaker has to accept resignations to restore people’s confidence in the system | | Cross Voting By BJP | |
STARK REALITY
RUSTAM
EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Apr 22: It’s a critical moment for the Speaker of the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly. He holds a very sensitive position and it is his fundamental duty to ensure that the people’s representatives do not do anything that is against the spirit of the constitution and that negates the very People’s Representation Act. It is his duty to see to it that the conduct of the people’s representatives is clean, as they constitute that segment that frames laws and decides questions of supreme importance. The Speaker just can’t afford to act in a partisan manner. He is one constitutional authority that is expected of setting norms and enforcing the principle of probity in public life by exercising his moral and constitutional authority over the people’s representatives, including those leading the government.
There are reports -- and reports appear trustworthy – that five of the seven BJP MLAs, who according to BJP high command, flouted the party whip, violated the people’s mandate, enacted an act of political debauchery and voted for the Congress and the NC candidates seeking election to the Legislative Council met the Speaker yesterday and urged him not to accept their resignation letters, if forwarded to him by the party high command. In fact, they have reportedly withdrawn their resignation letters, which they handed over to the party high command on April 14, a day after they committed an unpardonable sin. They have written to the speaker that their resignations should not be accepted as they had signed the same on “moral” grounds, which, according to them, no more exist after their suspension from the party. Those who have written the letters include Jagdish Raj Spoila (Basohli), Lal Chand (Bani), Durga Das (Hiran Nagar), Baldev Sharma (Reasi) and Bharat Bhushan (Raipur-Domana). Chaman Lal Gupta (Gandhi Nagar) and Gharu Ram (R S Pura) may follow suit and ask the Speaker not to accept their resignation letters, if forwarded to him by the BJP high command. They are so desperate that they could go to any extent to retain their positions.
This means the ball is now in the court of the Speaker. In other words, he is to take the final decision on the political future of those who betrayed their constituencies for the sake of easy money. If he lets them off, it would automatically mean a god-sent opportunity for the anti-NC and the anti-Congress forces in the state to beat the NC-led coalition government from right and left and accuse it of resorting to horse- trading to ensure the victory of the coalition’s candidates. The fact of the matter is that the JKNPP chairman Bhim Singh has already upped his ante, dismissed the suspension of the erring BJP MLAs as a mere drama and accused the Chief Minister and the NC and the Congress leadership of misusing the state power and official position in order to purchase the BJP MLAs, notwithstanding the fact that his own party legislators committed a fraud on the people of Jammu province by voting for the PDP candidate.
Bhim Singh, who has written a letter to J&K Governor N N Vohra asking him to permit him to prosecute the Chief Minister and the JKPCC chief and who is also planning to move the Supreme Court of India to seek disqualification of the erring BJP MLAs, has described the suspension of the seven “tainted” BJP MLAs who voted for the Congress and the NC for “huge cash”… as a “political stunt” and reminded the BJP high command that the “law on the subject is very clear that any MLA or a legislator who defies the whip of the party will stand disqualified suo-motto.”
Besides, he has urged the Speaker to “take cognizance of the matter and expel all the seven MLAs of the BJP, who have been notified by the party high command as bribe takers.” Not just this, he has further said: “The Governor of J&K is the custodian of the Constitution and Head of the Legislature of J&K. It is mandatory that the Governor should also take (an) appropriate action” in (the matter). But more than that, the JKNPP chairman has gone to the extent of charging the NC and the Congress leadership with bribing the BJP MLAs. “The NC and the Congress are direct beneficiaries and, therefore, their heads have to be tried in accordance with the anti-corruption law as well as the enactment of legislature on the subject…The beneficiaries should also be dismissed from their respective positions,” he has said in this regard.
The Speaker cannot afford to ignore the hard realities, including the widespread anger and resentment in Jammu province caused due to the act of treachery committed by the BJP. To ignore the hard realities and allow the erring BJP MLAs go scot-free would mean the vindication of those who have also accused certain elements in the political establishment of vitiating the whole electoral exercise by bribing the BJP MLAs.
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