PM, Shah must apologise for trampling democracy: Cong

The Nainital high court’s verdict, setting aside the imposition of President’s rule in Uttarakhand on Thursday, spurred an elated Congress to attack the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), demanding an apology from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president Amit Shah for “trampling” democracy and “murdering” constitution.

The verdict is a slap in face of the BJP for trying to dislodge an elected government, it said.

“The Modi government’s blatant power grab fails. Democracy wins,” Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi said, while he attacked the Centre in the wake of High Court verdict. “Modiji while you attack the Constitution, destroy institutions&undermine Democracy pl(please) remember ppl (people) of Uttarakhand & entire country are watching”, he tweeted.

Terming the court’s verdict as a victory of people of the state, democracy and constitutional norms, AICC in-charge (communications) Randeep Singh Surjewala said PM Modi and Shah should learn a lesson from this “decisive and resounding verdict”. “PM Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah will be well advised to now tender an unconditional apology to the nation and also to the people of Uttarakhand for trampling upon democracy, murdering constitution norms and subjugating the will of people to their blind quest to dislodge Congress governments. We welcome the verdict,” he added.

Surjewala said it proves the full majority, which the Congress enjoys, and the “sinister conspiracies” which are being hatched from Arunanchal Pradesh to Uttarakhand and many other states to dislodge elected governments by “foul means, use of money and muscle power”. It should now at least come to an end, he said.

Putting up a brave front, the BJP claimed that the Harish Rawat government in Uttarakhand is in minority and that it would be proved on April 29.

The kind of observations the state High Court has been making for the past three days, we are not surprised by its order, BJP general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya said.

Union Minister and BJP leader Kiren Rijiju said blaming the Central government for something which was a creation of the Congress is “unfortunate”.

“We all respect the court verdict. I have nothing to comment on it but just to blame the Central government for a particular situation which has been created by the Congress party, that is unfortunate. It is Congress party’s creation, not ours (BJP),” he said.