New Delhi: The Congress on February 17 took strong exception to the reference
to "partisan" Gujarat Assembly elections in President A P J Abdul Kalam's address to
the joint session of Parliament saying Chief Minister Narendra Modi and other
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders had run an election campaign in the state
in "total contravention" of the Constitution.
"We generally do not protest against inclusion of items in President's speech.
Today, we lodge our strong protest and serious objections to the manner in which the
President's address contained reference to highly controversial and partisan
elections in Gujarat," party spokesman S Jaipal Reddy told reporters.
Stating that the party was not finding fault with the President but with the
National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government, which is the author of the document
(speech), he said Modi and other BJP leaders ran an absolutely "fascist" campaign
which was in "total contravention of Constitutional tenets and Democratic decencies
of Parliamentary parameters".
He said BJP leaders had set absolutely new norms for electioneering and to refer to
Gujarat victory as that of Democracy "is an insult to the intelligence of the people
of the state".
"While results were binding on everybody, it did not justify malpractices. People in
Gujarat were divided in a cynical and brazen manner on communal lines. We,
therefore, take strong exception to Gujarat being mentioned in President's address,"
he said.
Reddy said so many elections had taken place in the past but this government
referred to elections in Gujarat which were held in "exceptionally sad
conditions".
"We know President has no freedom in his speech. The document is prepared by the
government. Therefore, we are not finding fault with the President but the
government," he said.
Reddy said the President himself visited Gujarat, the first state after becoming
President of India, to see for himself "the climate created by the BJP leaders in
the state".
The President should not have used such a "bad precedent" by referring to such
a "highly partisan" matter, he added.
PTI
