Puducherry Chief Minister V. Narayanaswamy and Lt. Governor Kiran Bedi are at loggerheads, once again, over the appointment of three nominated members to the Assembly.
Here is everything you need to know about the issue.
The trigger
On July 4, Ms. Bedi swore in three nominated MLAs of the Puducherry Assembly . They were BJP Puducherry unit chief V. Saminathan, its treasurer K.G. Shankar, and educationist S. Selva Ganapathy. They had been nominated to the House by the Union government.
The law
It is the Speaker of the House who administers the oath to Assembly members. But the Lt. Governor also has powers to administer oath.
While three members can be nominated to the House, it is usually the Union Territory government that suggests the names of nominated members, which is forwarded to the Centre through the Lt. Governor.
The Government of Union Territories Act, 1963, specifies that “The Central Government may nominate not more than three persons, not being persons in the service of Government, to be members of the Legislative Assembly.”
In this case, Mr. Narayanaswamy did not suggest any names even after being in power for more than a year. Ms. Bedi took the decision of nominating three members of her choice.
Political affiliations
This is one of the reasons for the tussle. Mr. Saminathan is the president of Puducherry unit of the BJP. He lost his deposit in the 2016 Assembly elections when he contested from Lawspet. Of the other two nominated members, one is a BJP functionary and the other is a known sympathiser of the party. Though the Lt. Governor’s position is apolitical, it may be recalled that Ms. Bedi was the BJP's chief ministerial candidate in the 2015 Delhi Assembly polls.
The timing of the swearing-in has raised the eyebrows too. Ms. Bedi swore in the three members late in the evening on July 4, 2017, in the absence of any government representative. Earlier in the day , the trio had approached the Speaker to conduct the swearing-in ceremony. Speaker V. Vaithilingam reportedly wanted to delay the event since a case related to the appointments is pending in the Madras High Court.
Former Minister and parliamentary secretary to the Chief Minister K. Lakshminarayanan filed a public interest litigation before the Madras High Court seeking to forebear the Union government from filling up the nominated seats of members of the Puducherry Assembly without the consultation and choice of the elected government of Puducherry. The next hearing is posted to July 23.
Mr. Narayanaswamy was vocal in criticising Ms. Bedi’s move , terming it as a violation of “established conventions and rules.” He went on to say, “The way it was conducted shows that she is working as a BJP agent.”
The Congress also released copies of FIRs pending against Mr. Saminathan and Mr. Selva Ganapathy and questioned the appointment of the members without proper verification.
The impact
There will be no impact in the legislature proceedings as nominated members cannot vote. Congress enjoys a comfortable majority with the DMK supporting it. Also, the trio won’t be “BJP members” per se.
The history
This isn't the first time Ms. Bedi and Mr. Narayanaswamy have faced off. Earlier, when Mr. Narayanaswamy directed all government employees to desist from using social media for official work, Ms. Bedi quashed the order calling it outdated. She even created a Whatsapp group connecting all Puducherry officers , where she can directly give instructions.
When the Speaker of the Assembly issued a ruling to transfer Puducherry Municipality Commissioner R. Chandrasekaran, Ms. Bedi refused to abide by the order. She also passed directions to the Chief Secretary that Mr. Chandrasekaran should continue to serve in his present assignment.
Ms. Bedi alleged that candidates selected through Centac counselling for PG medical and dental courses under the UT's quota were either denied admission or were being admitted under unjust conditions in medical institutions in Puducherry, a charge Mr. Narayanaswamy refutes.
Mr. Narayanasamy has repeatedly accused Ms. Bedi of being "non-cooperative" and "standing in the way of the Union Territory’s development". Ms. Bedi wrote an open letter to all lawmakers seeking to know why they were annoyed with her.
