Don't preach to us about democracy, Shah tells Congress

BJP President Amit Shah on Monday hit out at Congress for "preaching lessons on democracy" after B.S. Yeddyurappa formed government in Karnataka on being invited first by Governor Vajubhai Vala, reminding it how it formed the government in Goa in 1980 despite failing to win a single seat in the assembly election.

"History shows misuse of Article 356 was done most number of times by Congress. I have a list of the governments been toppled and formed by Congress against the mandate. Only during Indira Gandhi's tenure, Article 350 was used over 50 times and governments were toppled. Jawaharlal Nehru was the first to use Article 356 in Kerela," Shah said while addressing a press conference at the BJP headquarters here.

Responding to Congress's charge that the BJP was murdering democracy by forming government in Karnataka despite short of the magic number and its allegations of resorting to horse-trading to sail through the trust vote, he gave the example of Goa where the Congress could not even open its account but formed its government in 1980 to attack Congress President Rahul Gandhi.

"I will give you a good example. You can even ask Rahul Gandhi. Probably he has not read the history of Congress. You can even teach him about it. The Congress contested Goa elections and could not even win a single seat.

"After that what miracle happened that Pratap Singh Rane defected. The Congress not only formed its government but also ran a government for five years and that too without winning a single seat," he said.

He said Congress leaders should learn thier history and tell the country about it.

"They don't see their history and preach us on democracy. Those, who without reason put lakhs of people into jails and censored press, are preaching us on democracy. Leave Congress aside, I am surprised to see even you people (media) are listening it," he said in an obvious attack on Congress for imposing Emergency in the country.

Justifying the Governor's call's to invite BJP first to form the government in Karnataka, the BJP President said that it was duty of his party to form government.

"We were the single larget party and we were invited to form the government. There was nothing unethical in it," he said adding that the BJP was invited to form governments in Goa and Manipur because Congress had not staked claim despite emerging as single largest party as their leaders were "resting and sleeping".

"As the Congress did not claim to form governments in Goa and Manipur, the Governors were left with no choice to invite the party which was second largest. We were invited and we formed governments and running it successfully after passing the trust vote," he said.

--IANS

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