The EC’s proximity to Congress is too close for their comfort
Both the Bhartiya Janata Party and the Left are one in opposing the Congress-led UPA Government’s move to bring the three Election Commissioners at par. This is only possible through a constitutional amendment. Peeved UPA ally, the CPI, opposes the move that it describes as Congress’s “reaction” to the BJP’s hounding of EC Navin Chawla.
“What the BJP is doing is not right, but it is also clear that the move is to save some one person. The constitution is not changed every other day,” argues CPI General Secretary A. B. Bardhan. The BJP wants Chawla, who is close to the Congress, to be sacked. In its petition to the CEC, N. Gopalaswami, the BJP-led NDA “extensively documented Chawla’s role during the Emergency.” The “document” included Justice Shah Commission findings and info on prime postings during Congress regimes and grant of MPLAD funds to his private trusts.
BJP General Secretary Arun Jaitley, who’s been leading the charge, says that Chawla’s proximity to the Congress is too close for comfort. “He is shackled, he can’t function independently, detachedly,” he scoffed, adding, “this is setting a terrible precedent. Now all will be tempted to pack the EC with favourites.” (The BJP is demanding Chawla’s dismissal under Article 324(5) of the constitution) Yet, how justified is the demand? Says constitutional expert, Rajiv Dhawan, “The BJP has no business asking for someone’s removal just because it disapproves of him. Every time the Congress was in a crisis, it reacted by amending the constitution. It’s unholy!’’
For amending the constitution, a party needs two-thirds majority in Parliament. And with the Left continuing to waver, this is a Herculean task for the Congress. The BJP fears that by the time the next Lok Sabha polls are held, Gopalaswami will have been succeeded by “pro-Congress” Chawla.
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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008
Both the Bhartiya Janata Party and the Left are one in opposing the Congress-led UPA Government’s move to bring the three Election Commissioners at par. This is only possible through a constitutional amendment. Peeved UPA ally, the CPI, opposes the move that it describes as Congress’s “reaction” to the BJP’s hounding of EC Navin Chawla.
“What the BJP is doing is not right, but it is also clear that the move is to save some one person. The constitution is not changed every other day,” argues CPI General Secretary A. B. Bardhan. The BJP wants Chawla, who is close to the Congress, to be sacked. In its petition to the CEC, N. Gopalaswami, the BJP-led NDA “extensively documented Chawla’s role during the Emergency.” The “document” included Justice Shah Commission findings and info on prime postings during Congress regimes and grant of MPLAD funds to his private trusts.
BJP General Secretary Arun Jaitley, who’s been leading the charge, says that Chawla’s proximity to the Congress is too close for comfort. “He is shackled, he can’t function independently, detachedly,” he scoffed, adding, “this is setting a terrible precedent. Now all will be tempted to pack the EC with favourites.” (The BJP is demanding Chawla’s dismissal under Article 324(5) of the constitution) Yet, how justified is the demand? Says constitutional expert, Rajiv Dhawan, “The BJP has no business asking for someone’s removal just because it disapproves of him. Every time the Congress was in a crisis, it reacted by amending the constitution. It’s unholy!’’
For amending the constitution, a party needs two-thirds majority in Parliament. And with the Left continuing to waver, this is a Herculean task for the Congress. The BJP fears that by the time the next Lok Sabha polls are held, Gopalaswami will have been succeeded by “pro-Congress” Chawla.
For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article
Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008
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what a victory is, at the national level. They played all the tactics, right from boycotting elections to staging a coup against the elected president. On the other side, President Hugo Chavez grew in strength. The more the Opposition attacked him, the stronger he became. This was the domestic scene for the last nine years. Yet, the divided Opposition managed to defeat Chavez’s ambitious constitutional reforms by a narrow margin in the December 2 referendum. Chavez sought a series of reforms including letting the President run for re-election indefinitely. The reforms, in his words, would have sped up Venezuela’s transformation into a socialist country. However, many of his supporters, who gave him a victory in the December presidential elections last year, did not turn up to vote ‘yes’ for their Leftist President. Speaking to B&E, Dr. Shannon K. O’Neil, a Latin American expert at the Council of Foreign Relations, said, “This is the first setback for Chavez. Nevertheless, he still maintains substantial power – control of the presidency, the Congress, the courts, most of the media, and most of the local & regional governments. He has significant decree powers, so many of the issues he tried to pass through the referendum could potentially be passed through the pro-Chavez legislature.” The referendum has sparked off a new debate across the US. Is it the beginning of the end of Chavezism in South America? Certainly not in the near future at least, he still has the capacity to withstand setbacks.