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Opposition plans national protest on Friday

Communist Party of India-Marxist general secretary Harkishen Singh Surjeet today said the Opposition parties would launch a national joint action programme to protest against the Centre's decision to recommend the dismissal of Rabri Devi's government in Bihar.

Talking to reporters after a 30-minute meeting with President K R Narayanan, Surjeet said the programme, which is being finalised in consultation with various parties, would be launched on Friday.

Surjeet was leading a delegation of Left parties to the President to demand that he reject the Union Cabinet's recommendation.

Surjeet said the Cabinet's decision and Governor Sunder Singh Bhandari's report went against the landmark judgments of the Supreme Court in the S R Bommai case and on the dismissal of four state governments in 1992 in the wake of the Babri Masjid demolition.

He told the President that the Bharatiya Janata Party government did not have a majority in the Rajya Sabha and so its decision cannot be ratified by Parliament as required by the judgment in Bommai's case. Moreover, there are dissenting voices in the ruling coalition itself, making ratification of the decision in the Lok Sabha also doubtful.

Surjeet argued that if law and order was the criterion, the governments of Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Delhi should have been axed first.

But asked what the Opposition parties would do if the President followed the Cabinet's advice, he said: "I don't want to speculate on Presidential action. We have explained our position and he will take action."

Meanwhile, a delegation of Congress politicians led by Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sharad Pawar met the President for a second successive day, but left without talking to reporters.

UNI

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