Assam Congress says CM made ‘unconstitutional’ remarks, Sarma rejects charge

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Assam Congress says CM made ‘unconstitutional’ remarks, Sarma rejects charge

New Delhi: A Congress party delegation met Assam Governor Jagdish Mukhi on Saturday accusing chief minister HimantaBiswaSarma of making ‘undemocratic and unconstitutional’ remarks at least twice. After Congress MLA RupjyotiKurmi resigned from the party last week to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Sarma said instead of sitting in opposition benches for five years, opposition MLAs should consider joining the government and work for the welfare of the public.

In the second instance, the CM had said that deputy commissioners of districts will only listen to ministers and not MLAs on developmental work as legislators’ job was to frame laws in the assembly.

“The remarks by the CM which try to demean the constitutional roles and duties of the opposition are in very bad taste and we feel that such a behavior is intolerable and becoming part of a CM who has taken oath under you to protect and preserve and safeguard the Indian constitution,” the Congress memorandum read.

“The Indian constitution being a proviso for a parliamentary form of democracy wherein both ruling and opposition parties are a must. These remarks of the CM are undemocratic, unconstitutional...,” it added.

The memorandum submitted to the governor by the party in this matter said that MLAs are members of committees at block, circle, sub-division and district levels and are also ex-officio members of urban bodies in their constituencies.“MLAs are accountable to the people of their respective constituencies for development and other activities. So the CM’s statement that an MLA has no work outside assembly is concocted, self-manufactured and baseless only with a view to dissuading government officials from listening to opposition MLAs,” it stated.The Congress delegation led by the party’s legislature party leader DebabrataSaikia urged the governor to advise the CM not to pass such comments against the opposition in future.A similar memorandum was also submitted by the delegation later to assembly speaker BiswajitDaimary.