Opposition urges President to protect citizens’ rights

Major opposition parties called on President Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday and voiced their concerns over recent incidents of violence, including attacks by cow vigilantes and attempts to “muzzle voices of dissent”.

Seeking urgent intervention of the President, the delegation submitted a memorandum which highlighted several of their concerns including the following :

• Key legislations are being “disguised” as Money Bills “to bypass and undermine the Constitution position of Rajya Sabha”.
• Critical appointments have been made “arbitrarily bypassing the Parliament and other institutions
• States ruled by non-BJP parties “are being destabilised by misusing the powers of Governors and artificial majority is cobbled up by unethical means” and recent examples of Goa and Manipur were cited in this regard.
• The issue of malfunctioning and alleged tampering of EVM machines were also raised with the President, that have reportedly raised questions on the sanctity of electoral process, particularly in recently-concluded elections. He said in this regard the Opposition parties have already met the Election Commission, which has promised to convene an all-party meeting on the issue.
• There has been an attack on cultural, academic and historical institutions, universities, especially Nalanda University and the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library
• The continuous violence and failure of governance in Jammu and Kashmir is a matter of grave national concern
• All central agencies – the CBI, Income Tax and the Enforcement Directorate – are being used to harass leaders of political parties, particularly chief ministers.

The delegation led by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi sought the President’s urgent intervention “to ensure the rule of law” in the country and ensure that constitutional democracy and fundamental rights of citizens are protected.

Leaders of prominent Opposition parties including the Congress, the Left parties, All India Trinamool Congress (TMC), Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Janata Dal (United) and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) were part of the delegation. Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge and Anand Sharma were part of the delegation.

After the delegation met the President, Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad said, “An environment of fear and insecurity is prevailing in the country and voices of dissent are being muzzled.”

Azad said the delegation drew the attention of the President to the recent political developments which have “seriously undermined the accepted norms of governance and institutional integrity.”

“In a democracy, the rule of law must prevail, but self- styled lumpen elements have indulged in violence, mob lynching of citizens and harassment is being witnessed across the country,” he said.

The memorandum was also signed by Tariq Anwar (NCP), Satish Chandra Misra (BSP), Dharmendra Yadav and Neeraj Shekhar (SP), D Raja (CPI), Sitaram Yechury (CPI-M), Sukhendu Sekhar Roy and Kalyan Banerjee (TMC), Sharad Yadav (JD-U), V Elangovan (DMK) and others.