Governor's three questions to Gehlot Government

Kalraj Mishra, the Governor of Rajasthan, has emerged as the judge of the political fortunes of the state Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot. Mishra took the full time to decide on the recommendation of the Cabinet to convene a meeting of the Legislative Assembly and returned it with new questions and guidelines. Gehlot told the Congress MLAs that he had received 'another six-page love letter' from the Raj Bhavan.

The Governor wrote a letter raising three questions and said that the Governor has no intention of not calling the Assembly session. He questioned the Chief Minister whether he wanted to get a confidence vote. He wrote, 'Do you want to bring a motion of confidence? It is not mentioned in the proposal but you have been saying publicly that you want to bring a motion of confidence. He also asked if, in the current circumstances of Covid-19, MLAs would be given three weeks notice to attend the session. He also wants to know what arrangements will be made for the health and cleanliness of MLAs, including social distance.

The Governor is refusing to make haste in calling the assembly while Gehlot wants a meeting as soon as possible. The longer they have to wait, the greater the impact on prospects. Gehlot was lucky that the Rajasthan High Court rejected the petition filed by BJP against the merger of six BSP MLAs into Congress. If the petition was accepted and the merger was declared illegal, then the fall of the Gehlot government was certain.

On the other hand, Rajasthan Assembly Speaker CP Joshi has withdrawn his petition filed in the Supreme Court against the order of the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court had asked him to keep pending notice of termination of qualifications of former Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot and 18 other MLAs for now. The Speaker of the Assembly also challenged this order of the High Court which asked them not to take any decision against the rebels. With his retreat, it seems that the legal way to save the Ashok Gehlot government has been abandoned.

The Speaker made the decision, presumably after a Supreme Court question asking him what he had the right to abolish the qualifications of pilots and legislators. The Supreme Court had said that the voice of disagreement in a democracy should not be suppressed. Perhaps only after this, the Speaker of the Assembly felt that the decision in the Supreme Court would not be in his favor.

After the Governor's delay, Gehlot complained to Prime Minister Narendra Modi about his conduct. This is unnatural in itself because the Prime Minister has nothing to do with this entire process. In this case, the Ministry of Home Affairs is the head while the Governor reports to the President.

Congress leader P Chidambaram said in a virtual press conference, "I hope that the President will see what is happening - it is the decay of parliamentary democracy, the Constitution is being defied, it is being violated." ' He hoped that the President would take the right decision according to the circumstances. Chidambaram said that the President has every right to tell the Governor that he is doing wrong and instruct him to call the assembly session.

Asked if the President can directly intervene, Chidambaram said, "I am still sure that the President of India can intervene and ask the Governor to call an assembly session."

He said that he hoped that the sensible people would explain to the Governor that he should call an assembly session. He said that the governor does not have the discretion to make decisions in such cases.

Chidambaram said that if the Chief Minister wants to prove majority, he has the right to call the session, no one can stop his path. Calling a session means disrupting the foundations of parliamentary democracy. The Congress has also written a letter to the President complaining about the conduct of the Governor.

Apart from Jaipur, the party demonstrated in front of Raj Bhavan in other state capitals and made arrests.