Congress presses for RS discussion on role of Goa Governor

The Congress on Monday demanded a discussion in the Rajya Sabha on the conduct of Goa Governor Mridula Sinha in relation to the invitation to the BJP to form the government in the state.

Governor Sinha invited the Bharatiya Janata Party to form the post-poll government in the state despite the Congress emerging as the single-largest party in the assembly, Congress members said.

Raising the matter in the upper house, Congress senior leader Digvijay Singh said that the matter should be discussed as he had already submitted substantive motion on it.

"As suggested, I have submitted substantive motion (on it)," he told Deputy Chairman P.J. Kurien.

Kurien then told him that the matter was being "examined" by the Chairman and he would be informed about it.

To this, Singh said: "This is well taken. I understand. But the urgency (of the matter) is lost".

"We request you to kindly look into it. The role of Governor is totally unjustified and has gone against the Constitution and democracy," said the Congress leader, who as the Congress General Secretary was in charge of the party affairs in Goa.

Singh said that it has been a practice that in case of fractured mandate, the single-largest party is called to form the government.

"It's a murder of democracy," he added.

To this, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad reacted sharply and urged the Chair to get the term "murder of democracy" expunged from the record of the Rajya Sabha proceedings.

The Congress was supported by Janata Dal-United and the Communist Party of India-Marxist on the issue.

Speaking on the issue, Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad said that it should be taken up for discussion after lunch.

Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said that since the matter was with the Chairman, it should be left to him to decide about it.

--IANS

sk/sm/vt