Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi on Sunday criticised the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government at the Centre and said that instead of making efforts to rein in the coronavirus pandemic, the country’s leadership was busy conspiring to overthrow the government in Rajasthan. Her brother and party leader Rahul Gandhi also called out the “conspiracy and fraud” of the saffron party.
“Leadership is recognised in times of crisis,” Priyanka Gandhi tweeted, making an oblique reference to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “At a time of a national crisis, of the coronavirus, the country needs a leadership that works in the public interest. But the BJP government at the Centre has made its intention and its character clear by trying to topple the governments elected by the people. The public will answer.”
In a coordinated tweet, Rahul Gandhi said the people of the country will protect the democracy by rejecting the conspiracies of the BJP. “The democracy of India will run with the voice of its people on the basis of the Constitution,” he tweeted.
The tweets were a part of Congress’ “#SpeakUpForDemocracy” campaign. In another tweet, Rahul Gandhi posted a video of the ongoing political crisis in Rajasthan. The video shows a montage of the recent developments in the state that plays along with a voiceover in which, the party accuses the BJP of “ripping up the constitution”, “demolishing democracy” and “murdering democracy in Rajasthan”.
“In 2018, people of Rajasthan elected the Congress government,” the video added. “Today, the BJP is conspiring to topple the democratically elected Congress government...After doing the same in Madhya Pradesh, the BJP is now trying to murder democracy in Rajasthan.”
Several other party leaders chimed in and posted videos against the BJP’s “attempts to violate constitutional and democratic traditions” in the state amid a health crisis.
“The Congress government in Rajasthan is trying its best to control the Covid-19 pandemic, which has also been appreciated globally,” said Avinash Pande, Congress general secretary and the party’s Rajasthan in-charge. “At such a time, the BJP is trying to destabilise the elected government in the state.”
Party spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala, who is camping in Rajasthan with state unit leaders, said the BJP’s “conspiracy to kill democracy in broad daylight in Madhya Pradesh and now in Rajasthan has been exposed”. “Is democracy a slave of the Delhi Durbar?” he asked. “Is the majority a puppet in Delhi’s hands? Doesn’t the rule of vote matter? If not, then raise your voice.”
Meanwhile, Rajasthan BJP chief Satish Poonia took a swipe at the Congress and accused the party of hypocrisy. “The Congress is responsible for the political crisis in Rajasthan,” he tweeted. “It violated democratic values and insulted the Constitution for years. Will old sins be washed away through this ‘SpeakUpForDemocracy’ hypocrisy?”
The Rajasthan crisis
The Congress government in Rajasthan has been on the brink of collapse since former Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot rebelled against Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and proceeded with a few MLAs to Delhi earlier this month. Pilot was sacked as the Rajasthan deputy chief minister and as the Congress’ state unit chief on July 14. The next day, Assembly Speaker CP Joshi sent disqualification notices to Pilot and 18 other legislators.
The notices were served after the MLAs defied a whip to attend two Congress Legislature Party meetings to resolve the political crisis in the state. However, the MLAs said that a party whip applies only when the Assembly is in session. In their petition, the legislators sought to quash the notices, arguing that they had neither given up their membership of the House nor did their failure to attend two Congress meetings make them liable for disqualification on the ground of defection. It added that an elected representative of the people cannot be removed from his post on the whims and fancies of his party’s leadership.
After the rebel MLAs approached the High Court, the Speaker was initially asked to defer action. But on July 24, Pilot and 18 other dissident MLAs got partial relief from the High Court, which ordered maintenance of status quo on the disqualification notices. The court order put the disqualification procedure on hold.
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