The Congress and the Union government sparred over the circumstances that led to the restoration of Congress governments in Uttarakhand and Arunachal Pradesh. The Opposition accused the Centre of trying to destabilise its governments in various States, but Home Minister Rajnath Singh compared the Congress legislature parties in these States to a leaking boat.
The issue was raised by the Leader of Congress in the Lok Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge, who said that on the one hand, the Modi government was celebrating the 125th birthday of B.R. Ambedkar and on the other hand, it was “murdering” democracy by toppling popular governments.
“You have decided to execute your ‘Congress-mukt’ [Congress-free] slogan by any means. Wherever you get a chance, you destabilise governments and work to replace them with yours. You did so in Uttarakhand and Arunachal and tried in Manipur and Himachal Pradesh too,” Mr. Kharge said.
“This is good for neither public nor Constitution,” he stressed.
Rajnath Singh, however, gave as good as he got on the political points. “Instead of making allegations, they should know, since Independence if any party is singularly responsible for toppling opposition parties in the States, it is the Congress,” Mr Singh said.
“What happened in Arunachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand was, of course, unfortunate but it was all due to the internal crisis in the Congress, and has nothing to do with the Central government,” he said.
“The crisis in Uttarakhand was triggered only after nine Congress legislators stood up in the Assembly and said they opposed their own government. Similarly, two-thirds of the Congress legislators had quit the party and formed a separate group to form a new government in Arunachal Pradesh,” he said.
He compared the Congress to a leaky boat and said: Jis nao mein chched hae, uska dubna taye hae (a leaky boat is bound to sink). “It is pointless to blame the water for the capsizing of the boat.”
