Gandhi scion puts govt in a spot

It was a loss of face for Union Ministers Manish Tewari and V Narayanasamy after Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Friday publicly denounced a controversial ordinance passed by the Cabinet to protect convicted lawmakers from disqualification.

Rahul dropped the bombshell in a press conference at the Press Club of India here, while the two ministers were busy vociferously defending the government’s decision before another group from the media at Shastri Bhawan nearby.

Tewari and Narayanasamy, however, found themselves on the wrong side soon after they finished the briefing. They were caught unawares as media persons sought their comments on Rahul’s reservations to the ordinance sent to President Pranab Mukherjee for its promulgation.

“If Rahul Gandhi has said something, it is not in my knowledge. You have just informed me about it, we will take cognisance of it and whatever response needs to be given on it, that will be given,” Tewari, minister for information and broadcasting, said and took no time in leaving the venue.

Narayanasamy, minister of state in the prime minister’s office, also replied in a similar vein.

Earlier, both Tewari and Narayanasamy firmly defended the Cabinet decision. They also criticised the BJP for raising opposition to the ordinance.

“I think there is some kind of misunderstanding with regard to the intent and purport of the ordinance. There is nothing which the executive has taken upon itself,” Tewari told reporters while Rahul was trashing the ordinance.

The ordinance envisaged that in case a legislator was convicted by a court of law and a superior court then decides to stay the subordinate court’s decision, the person in question would be entitled to attend the proceedings of the House, he maintained.“Person in question (convicted legislator) will not vote, not draw salaries or allowances.

 This is the same principle which is applied by courts with regard to election petitions which also come within the purview of the Representation of People Act,” he argued.Tewari went further and did not even spare his party leaders Sandeep Diskhsit and Milind Deora who had expressed reservations to the ordinance.

When asked to comment on their remarks, he suggested that they should “minutely” go through the stipulations made in the ordinance and understand it.

Soon after the Supreme Court verdict on the issue in July, the government formulated a bill to amend the Representation of People Act followed by an all party meeting. The BJP wanted the bill to be referred to a standing committee after its introduction in Parliament.

“The BJP was trying to politicise the issue,” Narayanasamy charged, saying the principal opposition party did not allow a debate when a bill was brought in the monsoon session in the Rajya Sabha to protect convicted legislators from immediate disqualification.
Rahul slams ordinance, hails PM in letter

Rahul Gandhi has told Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that his views on the controversial ordinance on convicted lawmakers is not in harmony with the Cabinet decision or the core group’s view, PTI reports from New Delhi.

Gandhi, who had publicly called the ordinance to protect convicted MPs and MLAs from immediate disqualification as complete nonsense, causing tremors in the government, however expressed his “greatest admiration” for the prime minister’s leadership in extremely difficult circumstances.

The Congress made the letter public hours after Gandhi made the comments attacking the government’s position and the prime minister disclosed that he had received a communication from the party vice-president.