Hyderabad, November 16: Pointing out that the Chief Minister, Mr K Rosaiah, led a dharna at Basheerbagh on November 12 in violation of rules in protest against certain remarks alleged to have been made against the Congress president and UPA chairperson, Ms Sonia Gandhi, the State Bharatiya Janata Party leaders have urged the Governor to intervene and order arrest of the Chief Minister and his Cabinet colleagues for participating in the illegal dharna.
They also urged the Governor to use his extraordinary powers vested in him under Constitution and dismiss Mr Rosaiah as Chief Minister for deliberate violation of prohibitory order and for misusing official machinery to do something illegal.
In a letter dashed to Raj Bhavan on Monday, the BJP leaders urged the Governor, Mr E S L Narasimhan, to call for a report from the Director General of Police over the incident and order initiation of disciplinary action against the police officials who had conveniently ignored the rules.
“Your intervention will go a long way in restoring the faith of the people in democracy”, they added.
In the letter, the BJP leaders pointed out that consequent to the orders issued by the High Court, holding of dharnas in Hyderabad was strictly prohibited and those who wanted to hold dharnas could do so at the Dharna Chowk at Indira Park. They further pointed out that when various organisations and political parties tried to hold dharnas in the prohibited area, the people concerned were arrested irrespective of social, political and administrative status.
In this recent case, the dharna was held in an area declared as “Red Zone” in the police parlance since the area is within one kilometer radius from the Legislative Assembly and the Secretariat, they stated. Though the Chief Minister not only participated in the dharna in violation of rules, but also made provocative speech, the police officials concerned did nothing either to prevent or disrupt the dharna in the prohibited area. On the contrary, the law enforcing machinery extended logistic support to facilitate participation of the Chief Minister and his Cabinet colleagues in the dharna, they added.
The letter stated, “BJP holds that the Chief Minister, being the head of the government, failed to perform his constitutional responsibility by willfully violating the regulation of his own government. Violation of prohibitory order constitutes a criminal offence and warrants arrest of the Chief Minister. But the police officials preferred to ignore the serious violation. The Rule of Law is fundamental to the Constitution and democratic polity and in this case, the State government has failed the rule of law. The people responsible for maintenance of law and order themselves were violating the rules which affect the people’s faith in democracy.”
The BJP leaders have urged the Governor, as custodian of the Constitution, to intervene and order arrest of the Chief Minister and his colleagues who participated in the illegal dharna. They also urged the Governor to dismiss Mr Rosaiah as Chief Minister for deliberate violation of prohibitory order and for misusing official machinery to do something illegal.
The signatories to the letter were former Union minister, Mr Bandaru Dattatreya, the BJP national secretary, Dr K Lakshman, the State BJP president, Mr G Kishan Reddy, the State party general secretaries, Mr Somu Veerraju and Mr N Ramchander Rao, State party secretary, Mr G Premender Reddy and former MLA, Mr Baddam Balreddy.
——–NSS