Congress-BJP indulge in blame game over Arunachal in Lok Sabha

Buoyed by the Supreme Court verdict on Arunachal Pradesh, Congress on Tuesday slammed the government in the Lok Sabha, accusing it of “destabilising” its governments in states, a charge rejected by Home Minister Rajnath Singh.

Congress members also staged a walkout even as Singh said “internal crisis” of Congress was responsible for the controversial developments in Arunachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand and that “a boat is bound to sink if it has a hole”.

The issue was raised by Leader of Congress in the House Mallikarjun Kharge who said that on the one hand, the Modi government was celebrating the 125th birthday of B R Ambedkar and on the other hand, it was “murdering” democracy by toppling popular governments.

“You have decided to execute your ‘Congress-mukt’ (Congress-free) slogan by any means. Wherever you get a chance, you destabilise governments and work to replace them with yours. You did so in Uttarakhand and Arunachal and tried in Manipur and Himachal Pradesh too. This is good for neither public nor Constitution,” he said.

“We thank the Supreme Court for upholding the Constitution. Its order is historic and will be written in golden letters. You don’t have numbers but you want to grab power by the back door. It has become your nature. Democracy is being repressed, murdered,” he said during the Zero Hour.

“The Supreme Court has slapped you and, hopefully, you will not do such things again,” Kharge said referring to the recent verdict of the apex court to restore the Congress government in Arunachal Pradesh which had been dismissed by the Centre months back.

Earlier, the Supreme Court had restored the Congress government in Uttarakhand also after it was dismissed by the Centre.

Responding to the charge, the home minister said the Congress governments in Uttarakhand and Arunachal Pradesh fell due to the opposition by its own MLAs.

He, however, made no mention of the Supreme Court orders which had led to the restoration of Congress dispensations, dealing a blow to the Centre.

Bharatiya Janata Party had nothing to do with what happened in the two states, Singh said, adding “if any party has this very old habit of toppling popular governments, then it is Congress”.

While attacking Congress, he said its governments at the Centre had toppled governments in states 105 times.

He said crisis in the two states was “unfortunate” and destabilisation of popularly-elected governments was not good for healthy democracy.

“BJP had nothing to do with it. It was an outcome of your (Congress) internal crisis. Nine Congress MLAs opposed their own government on the floor of the Uttarakhand assembly.

In Arunachal, over two/thirds of them defected. If your boat has a hole, then it is bound to sink if you put it in water. Why blame water for it,” he said.

Image: Dark clouds seen in the sky over Parliament house on the opening day of monsoon session in New Delhi on Monday. Photograph: Subhav Shukla/PTI