New Delhi: Congress MP Manish Tewari speaks in the Lok Sabha
during the Winter session of Parliament, in New Delhi, Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024.
(PTI Photo)
NEW DELHI — The Congress on Tuesday claimed the
Bill on holding simultaneous polls was against federalism and
"anti-constitutional", and said the voting at its introduction stage
in the Lok Sabha showed the BJP lacked the two-third majority required to pass
a constitutional amendment.
Two bills that lay down the mechanism to hold simultaneous
elections were introduced in the Lok Sabha after a fiery debate on Tuesday.
Opposition parties dubbed the draft laws -- a Constitution
amendment bill and an ordinary bill -- as an attack on the federal structure, a
charge rejected by the government.
Speaking to reporters on the Parliament premises, Congress
MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said, "Anti-constitutional Bill, it is against
the federalism of our nation. We are opposing the Bill."
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor also hit out at the government,
saying voting at the introduction stage showed the BJP did not have the
two-third majority required to pass a constitutional amendment.
"We (the Congress) are not the only ones that have
opposed this Bill. The vast majority of the opposition parties have opposed this
Bill and the grounds are very many, it is a violation of the federal structure
of the Constitution. Why should a state government fall if the central
government falls?" he told reporters on the Parliament premises.
"Why should the timetable of one who enjoys the mandate
of the people be truncated because of the timetable of another? It makes no
sense. In a parliamentary system, you cannot have fixed terms. The reason that
fixed terms that existed 1952 onwards ended is because of the fact that we have
in our country a parliamentary system… different Houses, different majorities,
different coalitions, may rise and fall at different times," Tharoor said.
He added that going through the trouble of changing the
system like this made no sense because it would again result in "the same
mess" when a future government at the Centre or in the states lose the
confidence of the majority.
"My view is that this entire thing is a folly. In any
case, the votes today have demonstrated that the BJP does not have the two-thirds
majority required to pass a constitutional amendment," he said.
Tharoor said the government might constitute Parliament's
joint committee in such a way that it has a majority but, without a two-third
majority in the House, there would not be a constitutional amendment.
"So this discussion is increasingly futile," he
added.
Congress MP Manish Tewari said the Bill "assaults the
basic structure of the Constitution".
"It is against federalism. It is against the structure
of Parliamentary democracy… What has happened in the House is the travesty of
the Constitution today," Tewari said.
Congress MP Manickam Tagore said the bills had
"completely misfired" because the BJP did not have the numbers.
"If there would have been a voting on the bills today,
the bills would not have passed since a two-third majority was needed (for a
constitutional amendment)," Tagore said.
The bills were introduced after the opposition sought a
division of votes.
After electronic voting and a subsequent count by paper slips,
the bills were introduced with 269 members in favour and 198 against.
This was the first time that the electronic voting system
was used in the Lok Sabha in the new Parliament House.
