Criminals of the Constitution

In 2004 general election, BJP’s “India Shinning” campaign could not shine their fortune and voters packed them out of the power. INC did not get the required majority but all BJP haters joined hands together and formed UPA 1. The elected MP’s of Congress selected Mrs. Sonia Gandhi their leader. Ideally, leader of the largest party is always nominated PM. But when she met with President Kalam on 18-May-04, she proposed Dr. Manmohan Singh as PM. President was surprised as he was expecting that she would stake the claim. There are lots of theories on why did she not become PM. But that is not the topic of discussion. Mrs. Gandhi’s this sacrifice was glorified across the country and we made her larger than life! 

Now Congress was facing the serious issue on how Mrs. Gandhi can control the govt. being just MP! She cannot become a minister under her junior and UPA Chairperson isn’t a constitutional position. To resolve this crisis, they created a constitutional body using the power of Prime Minister. PMO notified formation of National Advisory Council (NAC) (http://www.nac.nic.in/) on 31-May-04. PM appointed Mrs. Gandhi as its Chairperson on 3-Jun-04. She was given the complete authority to select the members. The constitutional precedences of formation of any constitutional body were ignored. There is no procedure of selecting its Chairperson or members. No bureaucracy or opposition party is involved in selecting its Chairperson or members. Though its charter is to provide inputs in the formulation of policy by the Govt. and to provide support to the Govt. in its legislative business, its main purpose is to provide complete control of the govt. to Mrs. Gandhi. NAC can intervene in any ministry, ask their files and ask their secretary to make the presentation. It has control over Planning Commission as well. The activities, which were earlier done by respective ministries or Planning Commission, are now being done by NAC. See this link. (http://www.nac.nic.in/press.php) One can get the idea of their interference in governance.  There are ample evidences that NAC had intervened in selecting/changing ministers and bureaucrats without involving PM. Quickly, NAC became a pseudo cabinet and Mrs. Gandhi as Super PM with complete authority but with no responsibility! To deflect people’s attention from its main purpose, NAC acquired its validity, respectability, sanctity by appointing well known personalities (some controversial as well, in my opinion). Their work such as Right to Information, Right to Education, Right to Health, Food Security is now being promoted as their original work although constitution of India does talk about these citizen’s rights.

The story does not stop here. Mrs. Jaya Bachchan was expelled on 17-Mar-06 from RS by President on Election Commission’s recommendations for office of profit as she was holding an office of UP state. The opposition parties demanded similar action against Mrs. Gandhi being Chairperson of NAC. Just before Election Commission could take such action, the intelligent lawyers of Congress recommended her to resign both from NAC and as MP. She took high moral ground by resigning on 31-Mar-06 declaring that she is in the politics for serving the nation and people of India! It created such a profound impact that she was re-elected from Rae Bareli in by-election in May 2006 with emphatic majority over 4 lacs votes. The rest of candidates lost their security deposit! But this victory could not solve their main hurdle! She could not return as Chairperson of NAC. Although she resigned from NAC, it continued to function till 31^st Mar 2008 and ceased thereafter.

To remove this hurdle, Congress amended the Office of Profit Act 1959 itself! To hide their main agenda of removing NAC, they removed 55 offices from it. These offices were mainly from West Bengal and UP.  As Left and SP were main beneficiaries, they supported the amendments. BJP protested against the amendments strongly and walked out of the Parliament. Left and SP helped Congress in passing the amendment amid BJP’s walkout on 17-May-2006. The President sent back the amendments on 31^st May 2006 for seeking some clarifications. The government sent back the same bill to him without any modifications for his approval.  As the cabinet and parliament are supreme in the democracy, he had no other option but to give his consent on 18-Aug-2006! These amendments were also challenged in the Supreme Court. But SC, in August 2009, refused to intervene in legislative competence and power of parliament.

Now all the hurdles were cleared. NAC was reconvened and Mrs. Gandhi once again became the Chairperson in 29-Mar-2010. Her control over PM and Govt. started once again. She once again became Super Prime Minister! She is solely responsible for diminishing and devaluating India’s PM. Mr. Manmohan Singh silently allowed it to happen and became rubber stamp PM!

Mere act does not indicate whether it is virtue or sin. The intension or purpose behind the act decides it. If the purpose is empathy for others, then it is a virtue. But if the objective is exploitation, then it is a sin. Therefore, though Congress actions were correct in the eyes of law, but they resulted into exploitation of constitution for giving undue favor to Mrs. Gandhi. Therefore, it is a BIG SIN Congress has committed.  The people of this country should not forgive and punish these criminals. Let’s hope that such immoral body would be demolished and the respect of our constitution would be restored back during NaMo’s govt.