Maharashtra guv should shed 'RSS-BJP cloak', invite Sena-NCP-Cong to form govt: Tewari

The Congress on Tuesday said Maharashtra governor Bhagat Singh Koshiyari should shed his RSS-BJP cloak and invite its alliance with the Shiv Sena and the NCP to form a government in the state. Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari also said the turn of events in Maharashtra has put the role of the President under scanner.

"We do hope that the Governor would draw the right lesson from this entire episode as it has played out and shed his RSS-BJP cloak and appoint and invite 'Maha Vikas Aghadi' to form a government in Maharashtra so that the people get a stable government," Tewari told a press conference. He said the manner in which the Constitution was "mutilated and totally thrown out of the window" on Saturday morning will be "recorded in black letters in the history".

"What has happened today, first comma in the unrelenting, unscrupulous completely unethical manner in which opposition governments have been toppled or have been sought to be toppled in the past five years by the NDA-BJP government," he said. The Congress leader said the question is not that truth has finally triumphed in Maharashtra but the larger question is and we do hope that Supreme Court will go into that is the manner in which the Constitution, rules, regulations, precedents, traditions were completely thrown to the winds when the governor acted in the "most partisan manner possible".

"We do hope that the Supreme Court would look into the sequence of events - at what time did the BJP and their solitary ally approach the governor and submitted their offer that they are willing to form the government, what was the application of mind which took place in the governor's Secretariat... "Did the home minister apply his mind to the governor's report, at what time was it put up to the Prime Minister, is it legally proper for the Prime Minister to be invoking Rule 12(A) of the Transaction of Business Rules in order to carry out a midnight coup, steeped in chicanery in order to install a completely unconstitutional government," he said.

Tewari asked at what point did the PMO send the file to the President and who in the President's office dealt with it. "Did the President apply his mind to the governor's report? For this entire sordid saga as it has played out has brought into serious question the role of even the President of India and it is not that our courts earlier have not commented adversely on the role of the President in unfortunately similar circumstances," he noted.

He said those who seek the moral high ground and claim that they did not indulge in horse-trading, why did they form an illegal government in the first place. "Wasn't it your intention that if you are in government by some miracle, you will be able to abuse the authority which comes with being in government to break other political parties," he said.

In response to a question on whether the governor should resign, he said even though morally he should but he will not as the BJP and its leaders are not used to acting morally. Asked about Wednesday's floor test directed by the Supreme Court, he said events have over-taken the orders passed in the morning and in fact it is the order, which has really triggered this entire chain of events.

"The floor test, which was being contemplated, becomes void ab initio since the people, who have claimed or who had claimed to form government, who were sworn as chief minister and a deputy chief minister have resigned. The governor would not be out of order, if he was to invite the Maha Vikas Aghadi to form a government, but then again that is a call which the governor should take and in our respectful opinion, given that the process has become redundant. "The governor should, in the interest of stability and the people of Maharashtra, actually invite the Maha Vikas Aghadi to form government and demonstrate their strength on the floor of the House," he said.