Ghulam Nabi Azad. (Source: Express photo by Anil Sharma) Ghulam Nabi Azad. (Source: Express photo by Anil Sharma)

Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha explains why the Congress has been obstructing the House.

You wanted to raise an issue seeking the dismissal of the Arunachal Pradesh governor; the government says it is a state subject.

We had given notice to raise an issue relating to the way the governor is interfering in the internal matters of the government and subverting the Constitution. The assembly session was over on October 31 and the governor prorogued the session on November 3 to be reconvened on January 14. One of the Congress MLAs, who is also the deputy speaker, had become a rebel in collusion with the BJP. Our party had given a notice to the Speaker for his removal. Three days later BJP MLAs gave a petition to remove the Speaker. There was no charge against the Speaker. What was unfortunate is that the governor become a party to the dispute and took the side of the BJP and the deputy speaker. The governor suo motu summoned the assembly on December 16. Such a thing has never happened in the history of India… He can exercise such powers when the state is under President’s rule. These are very glaring examples of democracy being murdered. Even the British did not employ such tactics. BJP’s central government wants to topple the Congress government using the governor.

But why do you allege that the BJP-led government at the Centre is behind all this?

This is not an isolated incident. The government is trying to destabilise all non-BJP state governments. Whether it is Congress-ruled Himachal Pradesh or Arunachal Pradesh or Aam Aadmi Party-ruled Delhi. Or Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, where the prime minister is directly talking to the chief secretary. Or for that matter any other non-BJP state.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said the reasons for disrupting the current session keep changing by the hour.

Who is responsible? The government should be held responsible, because it is the government which is providing us issues. And these are issues of national importance. In Punjab, the arms and legs of Dalits are chopped off, in Haryana they are burnt alive, in Arunachal the governor is indulging in unconstitutional activities with an ulterior motive of removing the chief minister… We hold the government solely and squarely responsible for the disruption.

But isn’t it a fact that the Congress is going from one issue to another every day?

I just want to say that it is they who are providing us issues everyday.

In such an atmosphere of confrontation, what will the fate of bills like GST be?

The government should either be interested in GST or in destabilising states. They want government business to be passed and at the same time they want to destabilise non-BJP states. Two things cannot be done together.

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