Both the Houses of Parliament witnessed repeated adjournments and walk-outs over the Arunachal Pradesh Governor Jyoti Prasad Rajkhowa’s decision to summon the State Assembly allegedly without consulting the State government. While the Congress members walked out of the Lok Sabha, in Rajya Sabha, the party members did not allow the House to function and raised slogans against the Centre.
A delegation of the Congress leaders and MPs met President Pranab Mukherjee and expressed their concern over the developments in the State. They gave him a memorandum which said there is a plan to destabilize an elected government. Congress president Sonia Gandhi told reporters after meeting Mukherjee that the delegation conveyed their anguish and concerns at the manner in which the Congress government in Arunachal Pradesh is sought to be destabilised. “We have sought his protection to ensure the sanctity of the Constitution,” she added.
The memorandum said, it was evident that the BJP top leadership in connivance with some dissident Congress MLAs planned to destabilise the democratically elected Congress Government in Arunachal Pradesh. “This is obviously a pre-planned design involving the highest functionaries of the Central Government in this unprincipled enterprise. We are saddened to state that even the Governor of Arunachal Pradesh has acted contrary to the spirit and scheme of the Constitution,” it said.
It added that the Governor, at the behest of the Central Government, along with those Congress MLAs enticed to defect to the BJP are using unconstitutional means in seeking to oust the Congress government in the State. “In the 60 Members Legislative Assembly of Arunachal Pradesh, 47 MLAs belong to the INC, 11 BJP and 2 Independents,” the memorandum said.
“Surprisingly, on December 9, 2015, the Governor also sent a message under Article 175(2) of the Constitution of India inter-alia fixing the “resolution for removal of the Speaker” as the 1{+s}{+t} item of the agenda for the State Assembly on its 1st sitting in its 6th Session. Such a conduct of a highest Constitutional authority is unprecedented,” the memorandum said.
They said the Governor, instead of acting in the best interests of the State, is being guided by partisan political interests of the BJP. “The Governor’s actions have created a constitutional crisis and constitutional tenets of propriety are being wantonly disregarded,” they said.