Haste shows something is really fishy
It is shocking that while the decision on parliamentary secretaries in Delhi was taken up so swiftly, the same issue has been kept on low priority in other states, especially those ruled by the BJP
It has already been proven that the disqualification of the 20 legislators of the Aam Aadmi Party ( AAP) was done at the behest of the BJP. The lightning speed at which the matter was taken up and the Election Commission recommended the issue to President Ram Nath Kovind is ample proof of this.
On January 19, the Election Commission had taken the decision to disqualify 20 AAP MLAs, which we got to know through the media. The next day we sought time from the President, so that before he takes any decision we could get an opportunity to present our side. Being a democratic nation, we should have had an opportunity to be heard, only after which any decision should have been taken in the matter.
Saturday ( January 20) was Mr A. K. Joti’s last day as Chief Election Commissioner, and he referred the “offices of profit” case to the President on this very day. The next day, on Sunday, the President accepted the poll panel’s recommendation to disqualify 20 MLAs for holding “offices of profit”.
The utter haste in which the decision was taken proves that the poll panel was not acting independently, but was toeing the line of the BJP. It is highly unfortunate that the President took the decision in such haste, without giving us a chance to speak. It’s an act of the Centre using the constitutional institutions for its own gains.
This makes us question what was the pressure exerted by the Centre on the constitutional body ( the poll panel) that the decision was taken in such extreme haste? We all know the prevailing situation in the country.
It is utterly shocking that while the decision on parliamentary secretaries in Delhi was taken up so swiftly, the same issue has been kept on low priority in other states, especially states ruled by the saffron party.
In Chhattisgarh, the state government has appointed 11 parliamentary secretaries, and if these 11 legislators are disqualified the government would lose its majority in the Assembly. In the 90- member Chhattisgarh Assembly, the BJP has 49 MLAs, followed by the Congress ( 39), Independent ( 1) and BSP ( 1).
This is not the first time that as a political party, we have pointed fingers at the functioning of the poll panel. Before us, four eminent judges of the Supreme Court had pointed out how constitutional bodies are being used to score political gains. The people of the country are well aware of this.
It is extremely sad that the BJP- ruled Centre got the CBI raid conducted on us, got the AAP MLAs convicted in false cases and now they have not even fallen short of using the poll body to disqualify us. But it is very clear that they are still unhappy because even after the disqualification of 20 legislators, they have been unable to destabilise the AAP government in Delhi that had secured a mammoth majority with 67 seats in 2015.