Bid to destabilise Congress govts, Northeast CMs tell President

The memorandum said “all governors appointed by the BJP government are either committed members of the RSS or are committed to that ideology or wish to take forward the agenda of the BJP and the RSS”.

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Former Arunachal Pradesh CM Nabam Tuki, Meghalaya CM Mukul Sangma, Congress leader V Narayanswamy and others, hand over memorandum to the President Pranab Mukherjee, at Rashtrapati Bhavan on Saturday. (Source: PTI)

Barely 24 hours after dissident Congress leader Kalikho Pul was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh with outside support from 11 BJP MLAs, Congress chief ministers from the Northeast met President Pranab Mukherjee and told him that they fear other Congress governments in the region would be destabilised in a similar manner.

“The manner and method in which the established Government of Arunachal Pradesh led by Nabam Tuki has been destablised is an experiment which, we fear, will be replicated in other Congress-led Northeastern states. We request you, as the custodian of our Constitution, to safeguard the interests of the duly elected governments, which we fear might be destabilised in this manner,” the Chief Ministers said in a memorandum to the President.

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Besides Tuki, the delegation included Meghalaya Chief Minister Mukul Sangma, Mizoram Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla, Manipur Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh, Congress MPs from the Northeast and AICC general secretary in-charge V Narayanasamy.

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“We are deeply perturbed by the fact that the present government in Delhi is trying to misuse the offices of Governors to dislodge the democratically elected governments in the Northeast. A very bad precedent is already created in Arunachal Pradesh… There is a violation of the Constitution. This does not augur well for our democracy,” Sangma said after the meeting.

The Chief Ministers told the President that the proclamation of President’s Rule in Arunachal was “designed only to ensure that the Governor, who is acting as an agent of the BJP rather than as a constitutional authority, is given the opportunity to illegally dismiss the government led by Tuki and install a disqualified dissident Congress MLA Kalikho Pul as Chief Minister”.

The memorandum said “all governors appointed by the BJP government are either committed members of the RSS or are committed to that ideology or wish to take forward the agenda of the BJP and the RSS”. They also brought to the President’s attention “attempts to create a communal divide” in the Northeast.