Taking a dig at Narendra Modi referring him as “Maafi ka Saudagar”, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao demanded that the prime minister should come to his senses and withdraw the ordinance on officers and their postings brought by the Centre even as the Supreme Court delivered a judgement in favour of the Delhi government.
The demand came after Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal met Rao on Saturday at Pragathi Bhavan along with his Punjab counterpart Bhagwant Mann and the two RS MPs of AAP, Sanjay Singh and Raghav Chadda in order to seek his support in defeating the Bill which the Centre will have to bring in the Parliament in order to replace the Ordinance in the Rajya Sabha.
The Telangana chief minister, who once again chose to stay away from the meeting of Niti Aayog in New Delhi, took several potshots at Narendra Modi and the BJP government at the Centre. Apart from reminding the prime minister about his failure to impose the farm laws and calling him “Maafi ka Saudagar” or a merchant of apology, he said the current political situation was “worse than Emergency” which too had been imposed after the judgement of Allahabad High Court.
He also recounted how the BJP was brought to its knees recently by the people of Karnataka and predicted that if the ordinance was not withdrawn, they will be taught a lesson by the people.
“The prime minister and his government should withdraw the ordinance without further loss of time. Otherwise we will fight unitedly. I think the whole system will support Kejriwalji because it is the question of the existence of the whole democratic system in the country. It is a threat and challenge to democracy. This cannot be tolerated in a big country like India. The government should come to its senses and withdraw the Ordinance,” said Rao, popularly known as KCR.
“Modi Government has insulted the people of Delhi by bringing the ordinance,” he said pointing out that the AAP government was a popular one, elected thrice in a row.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal also pointed out that if a state elects a non BJP government, then the saffron party either buys their MLAs, or engineers a split in it by sending the Enforcement Directorate (ED) or other Central agencies or do not allow the government to function by using the governors.
“BJP does not have a majority. Out of 238 MPs in Rajya Sabha, BJP has only 93. If all non BJP parties come together, we can stop this Bill in Rajya Sabha. If this happens, then the entire country will get the confidence that Modi Government will not come back (to power at the Centre) in 2024,” said Kejriwal.
On the the Niti Aayog meeting, which all the three chief ministers skipped, Mann said, “Why go to Niti Aayog, to get ourselves clicked? What we asked for last year they didn’t sanction. I wrote in my letter that they should consider my last year’s speech for this year too.”