'Don't Sign The Ordinance'

NDA's memorandum to the President

Mahamahim Rashtrapatiji,

We, members of both Houses of Parliament belonging to the constituent parties of the National Democratic Alliance have come to you at an hour of extraordinary and unprecedented crisis in the history of India’s parliamentary democracy. You can gauge our sense of anguish and outrage from the fact that we have come marching straight from Parliament House to Rashtrapati Bhavan.

We strongly condemn the brazen assault that the UPA government has mounted on the established principle and practice of the parliamentary system by getting both the Houses adjourned sine die, paving the way for Parliament to be prorogued. This has been done solely and exclusively for the purpose of promulgating an ordinance to save Shrimati Sonia Gandhi, president of the Congress party and chairperson of the National Advisory Council, from certain disqualification on grounds of holding an "office of profit".

Only last week, leaders of the Congress party were gloating over your approval for a recommendation by the Election Commission to disqualify Shrimati Jaya Bachchan, a member of the Rajya Sabha (Samajwadi Party), for holding an "office of profit". Indeed, even the application seeking her disqualification was moved by a Congress member in Uttar Pradesh.

But now that it has emerged that even the office that Shrimati Sonia Gandhi holds is an "office of profit", under the Parliament (Prevention of Disqualification) Act, 1959, the Congress party is gripped with fear and panic. In a desperate attempt to protect her from this legal predicament, the government has undermined the spirit and well-established norms of parliamentary functioning. The ordinance is meant to exempt her office from the provisions of the Act, so that she can continue to reign as India’s "Super Prime Minister" – exercising all power with no accountability. Since an ordinance cannot be introduced unless Parliament is prorogued, the government has decided to adjourn it sine die.

In this context, we would like to mention that your decision to accord approval, in … last year, to the Cabinet’s recommendation for dissolution of the Bihar legislative assembly met with disapproval by all democracy-loving people of India. The Supreme Court struck it down as unconstitutional and also censured the council of ministers for not applying its mind to the report sent by the governor, who had to tender his resignation.

We have no comments to offer on why the Election Commission considered Shrimati Bachchan’s position as the chairperson of the UP Film Development Council as an "office of profit". Similarly, we do not question why you deemed it right to give your approval to the EC’s recommendation. But you will certainly agree with us that there cannot be double-standards in application of the law – one standard for Shrimati Jaya Bachchan and another for Shrimati Sonia Gandhi.

We would like to draw your kind attention to the recent refusal of the Governor of UP to give his assent to a bill passed by the state assembly exempting a certain number of offices from the purview of the "offices of profit". The reason apparently given for the refusal was that it was proposed to exempt these offices with retrospective effect. Again, there cannot be double standards – one for UP and another for the Centre. Further, since a Governor is your own nominee in a state, it would be improper for the proposed central ordinance to be ratified by you.

Respected Rashtrapatiji, we have come to urge you, as the Custodian of the Constitution, not to sign the ordinance and thus give presidential sanction to this sacrilege. We would like you to give the Nation a firm assurance in this regard.