SC verdict on Arunachal 'very strange': BJP

 BJP today appeared critical of the Supreme Court verdict on Arunachal Pradesh, saying it is a "very strange order" that the leader with the majority support is being asked to sit in the opposition and also wondered if the verdict "weakens" the democratic spirit.

Asserting that numerical strength was very important in democracy, it said the current Chief Minister Kalikho Pul has the number to run the government and not his predecessor Nabam Tuki, whose government has been revived by the judgement.

"Much water has flowed down in the last seven months. The order certainly raises a question as to whether it strengthens the democratic spirit or weakens it. This is a question as it appears from the verdict that the one having the majority is being asked to sit in the opposition and the one who has lost it is being asked to run the government.

"This is a very strange order and that is why it is being studied. The person who has the majority, who is running the government presently is being asked to be in the opposition," party national secretary Shrikant Sharma told a press conference.

Sharma, though, insisted that he was not commenting on the verdict and the party will study it before making a response.

The numbers in the Arunachal Pradesh assembly, he said, were with Pul and not Tuki.
"In democracy, the one with the numbers runs the government. And the numbers are with the current chief minister not Tuki," he said.

In a major embarrassment to BJP and the Centre, the Supreme Court today ordered restoration of the Congress government in the state by quashing all the Governor's decisions that had precipitated its fall in January, holding them "violative" of the Constitution.