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Advani insists Rabri ought to have been sacked

Union Home Minister Lal Kishinchand Advani today justified the Cabinet's recommendation to dismiss the Rabri Devi government in Bihar, saying it was a model of bad governance.

Inaugurating the political convention of the Bharatiya Janata Party's Rajasthan unit in Jaipur, Advani said the Cabinet decided not to press the matter only to show respect to the President.

Advani said the BJP was strongly against the misuse of Article 356. But after a thorough consideration, the party felt Bihar was a fit case for invoking the Article.

He accused the non-BJP parties of rallying behind Rabri Devi merely to oppose the BJP. He said the party would initiate a national debate on Article 356.

Making the same suggestion in New Delhi, BJP general secretary M Venkaiah Naidu, MP, repeated the party's stand that the controversial article has "no meaning" if it cannot be used in case of a "constitutional breakdown". "The people of Bihar will suffer for non-application of Article 356 in the state," he said.

Meanwhile, the Congress today made it clear that it was in favour of retaining Article 356 and the governor's post.

The party objected strongly to BJP president Shashikant 'Kushabhau' Thakre's public criticism of the President's decision to return the Cabinet's advice. They said the President's decision was a wise one that had safeguarded democracy. "The kind of public criticism made by Mr Thakre is not good for democracy and we do not approve of it," spokespersons Ajit Jogi and Girija Vyas said in New Delhi.

In Madras yesterday, Thakre had said, "If Article 356 cannot be invoked in Bihar, then it is redundant."

Jogi and Vyas said it was the considered view of the Congress that Article 356 should remain, but its misuse should be prevented.

But Advani scoffed at the charge of 'misuse', saying the Congress itself had invoked the Article more than a hundred times since 1947. The Article was misused to dismiss the BJP governments in Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, and Rajasthan "without any valid reason" in 1992, he said.

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