Former union minister and Congress Party leader Manish Tewari, on Friday said the NDA Government is pursuing a policy of changing UPA-appointed governors and heads of statutory corporations, which is a violation of an order passed by a Constitution bench of the Supreme Court.
"On the governors issue, the matter is absolutely explicit. There is a clear constitution bench judgement. A judgement delivered on the PIL filed by a member of the BJP, Mr.B P Singhal, whereby the court has said that you cannot remove Governors merely because they are politically inconvenient to the dispensation in office at the centre. Therefore, it is for the BJP and the NDA government to decide are they going to violate the spirit of the constitution bench judgement. If they do decide to do so, as to how democratic it is, now they have extended this further by ostensibly asking statutory corporations to step down, this is nothing else except politically motivated," Tewari told ANI.
He asked: "Why would a government want people whose terms are yet remianing, who are appointed in a proper manner to step down just merely because there has been a change of government at the centre. It completely and absolutely defies logic. It flies in the face of whatever the BJP had been esposuing when they were in opposition. If you recall when LK Advani who was then leader of opposition in 2004 had reacted very strongly on Governors issue. Now ten years later this government is doing the exact opposite of what they had professed both inside and outside parliament," he added.
Yesterday, the government asked for the resignations of several appointees of the UPA Government, including National Council for Women chairperson Mamta Sharma and ICCR chief Karan Singh.
Eight members of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), the head of the National Commission for Women and the chief of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), which helps promote Indian artistes abroad, have already been asked to go.
A number of governors appointed during the reign of the UPA have been asked to step down from their posts as well. Uttar Pradesh Governor, BL Joshi was the first to resign from his post, and was followed by the Governor of Chhattisgarh Shekhar Dutt who has also resigned from his post although the latter's name did not feature in the list to be removed.
BJP defends move to seek ouster of NDMA head and members
Party spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain said senior members and heads of the panel have to decide for themselves as the Prime Minister through whom their appointments were done is no longer in power. "When their Prime Minister is no longer there and they were appointed through him and they contested election and they did politics, then they have to take decisions about themselves", he said. Read more
How is Modi government's move to replace UPA-appointed officials in nation's interest?
The Uttar Pradesh governor being the first in the house of cards to resign, a number of governorsand other officials have demitted office after being asked to by the Home secretary. These governors who were appointed by the previous UPA government have made many question the intentions of the present NDA government. Read more
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