Kejriwal has urged the president to hear his party before approving the ordinance on convicted lawmakers.
Opposition parties — BJP and Left — and Congress on Wednesday clashed over the ordinance that protects convicted MPs and MLAs from facing immediate disqualification with the saffron party opposing government’s decision as an attempt to make “cheats, frauds, murderers” as lawmakers.
As the ordinance on lawmakers cleared by the Union cabinet on Tuesday came under attack, Congress leader and I&B minister Manish Tewari took on BJP leader Sushma Swaraj, who had requested the president not to sign it, saying the constitutionality of legal enactments could be decided by courts and not by the opposition party.
Arvind Kejriwal of Aam Aadmi Party said his party will challenge the move in the Supreme Court. “AAP will challenge the ordinance in the apex court if it is approved by the president,” he said.
AAP has written a letter to president Pranab Mukherjee requesting him to hear them before approving the ordinance. Kejriwal said he and his party leaders will try to meet president to discuss the ordinance before he signs it.
Questioning the need of the ordinance, Kejriwal said, “ordinances are brought only in special cases. What was the urgency of ordinance in this case when the Bill in this regard has been tabled in Rajya Sabha in the just concluded session of parliament. The Bill has been already referred to standing committee,” he said.
He alleged that all political parties are in hand in glove on this issue. “There are criminal cases pending against members of all parties. No party is clean be it BJP, Congress, SP, BSP or RJD,” Kejriwal said. Senior advocate and AAP leader, Prashant Bhushan said, “The Supreme Court had said that laws should not be different for common man and MP’s. This ordinance is against the ruling.”
Former law minister Shanti Bhushan said the law ministry is “hopelessly incompetent” and people sitting there failed to read the SC’s judgment properly. The Left parties while opposing the decision said the UPA government was “repeatedly using the ordinance route which is undemocratic.” The CPI-M politburo said the matter of disqualification of elected members who are convicted “should have been discussed in parliament and appropriate steps taken.”
Meanwhile, adv ML Sharma moved Supreme Court seeking the quashing of the government’s decision to bring in an ordinance to shield convicted lawmakers from being unseated in the wake of the court’s July 10 verdict. — With Agency inputs
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