Union Law Minister M. Veerappa Moily said on Saturday that it was only the BJP which was seeing the Governor H.R. Bharadwaj as a Congressman.
He did not agree with presspersons here on Saturday that there was a perception across the board that the Governor was acting in a partisan manner. “I don’t think it is across the board. It is the BJP, which is an interested party, that wants his recall. I don’t think anybody will oblige to that. The BJP should not think that entire world is with them.”
Mr. Moily said Governor is a constitutional authority who has not done anything unconstitutional. “Constitutional authorities should be protected. There should not be a serious public debate on a constitutional authority. Any provocation should not be used to that (recalling a Governor).”
When asked whether the Governor’s conduct was being reviewed by the Congress, in the aftermath of the High Court ruling upholding the actions of Speaker in disqualifying 11 BJP legislators, Mr. Moily said no political party could review the conduct of a Governor. Moreover, “the judgement is not the end of the matter. They (disqualified MLAs) can go to Supreme Court,” he said.
Mr. Moily said there was no evidence to show that the Congress is behind the recent political developments in Karnataka. “We are only accused of being behind (such activities). We have nothing to do with the defections,” he stated. The genesis of the whole problem was character crisis in the BJP, he said. With the party leader Sushma Swaraj was siding with the Reddy brothers there was a vertical split in the BJP, Mr. Moily added. “It is an internal collapse. It is for the BJP to repair it.”
He termed the resignation of two Congress MLAs from the party as unfortunate act of opportunists. He accused the BJP of engineering their resignation. He regretted that the BJP State unit President K.S. Eswarappa had given an open call for MLAs to join his party. He said this was akin to giving a call to openly flout the provisions of the anti defection laws which, he said, had served the purpose for which they were made.
