Daring the Congress to dismiss the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Karnataka by experimenting with Article 356, senior BJP leader M. Venkaiah Naidu on Saturday said: "If the BJP government in Karnataka is to be dismissed, then all Congress governments in other States will have to be dismissed."
Mr. Naidu, at a press conference here, pointed out that some Opposition leaders had appealed to Governor H.R. Bhardwaj to dismiss the BJP government in the State citing "certain incidents" related to the law and order situation. If this was the yardstick for dismissing a government, then all other Congress governments, including those in Delhi, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Assam would have to be dismissed first, he said.
"If you think that law and order situation is bad in a peaceful State like Karnataka, what about Andhra Pradesh? Is there a government in Andhra Pradesh and has any day passed off there without witnessing violence?," he asked.
"I caution them not to go for any misadventure. They have to remember what happened earlier when they dismissed the democratically elected governments.
"You think that Governors are appointed only to dismiss the democratically elected governments?," he asked.
Mr. Naidu criticised the Governor for rejecting the nomination of BJP leader V. Somanna to the Legislative Council on the grounds that he was a "defector" and a politician who had lost the Assembly polls.
The Congress had nominated several politicians, including Shivaraj Patil and P. M. Sayeed, as Rajya Sabha members after they lost the polls and made them Ministers, he said.
Mr. Naidu said that the choice of personalities for nominating to the Council was the discretion of the government and the Governor could only refer such issues back to the State Cabinet if there was any violation of the spirit of the Constitution.
Governor must guide
"The Governor should be a friend and guide to the State government and should not indulge in public criticism and also desist from making political comments," he said.
