Uttarakhand crisis: BJP dismisses Cong's criticism, says devil quoting scriptures'
Venkaiah Naidu said Congress and its supporters had dismissed 91 non-Congress governments.
New Delhi: Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu on Monday dismissed Congress criticism as "devil quoting scriptures" over the Modi government’s imposition of President's Rule in Uttarkhand, contending that Congress and its supporters had dismissed 91 non-Congress governments.
"Congress and its supporters dismissed 91 non-Congress governments, and are now crying foul. It's like devils quoting scriptures. When you do it, you are a saviour of democracy and when we do it out of constitutional necessity, we are murderers of democracy," Naidu said in a statement.
Read: Uttarakhand crisis: Congress moves High Court against President's Rule
Citing figures, Naidu said President's Rule was imposed "50 times during Indira Gandhi's regime, 11 times during P V Narsimha Rao's regime, 10 times during Manmohan Singh's regime and seven times during Jawaharlal Nehru's regime".
Naidu, a former BJP President, also contrasted these "facts" with the imposition of President's Rule six times under BJP's Prime Ministers Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Narendra Modi.
Read: Murder of democracy, Modi's hands dipped in 'blood': Harish Rawat
At a time when the NDA government is facing combined Opposition attack on the Uttarkhand issue with parties including those from the Left calling the Centre's decision to bring the hill state under President's Rule "murder of democracy", Naidu reminded Congress that "you dismissed the first Communist government formed by EMS Namboodiripad in 1959 in Kerala".
Naidu claimed that it was only because of the internal fights of Congress party that states like Arunachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand had be to brought under President's Rule.
Read: BJP exploring all options in UttaraKhand: Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi
Listing the reasons for the government action in Uttarakhand, the Parliamentary Affairs Minister said that finance bill was "defeated" in the Assembly and yet shown as passed and there was "horse-trading on camera" and "complete breakdown of Constitution".
"Speaker disqualifies MLAs one day before voting. Their Chief Minister is caught on camera offering allurements to win over MLAs. The forensic lab confirms the authenticity of the video. You disqualify MLAs before voting and now you are crying foul," Naidu said.
The Union Minister said Uttarakhand Assembly is only in suspended animation now and not dissolved and asserted that people will disqualify Congress as and when elections are held.