SC revoking suspension of 12 BJP MLAs is ‘tight slap’ on Maha govt: Fadnavis

The BJP has hailed the Supreme Court order setting aside the Maharashtra Assembly’s decision to suspend 12 party MLAs for a year. BJP Leader of the Opposition Devendra Fadnavis on Friday termed it a “tight slap on the face” of the ruling Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government.

“I would like to thank the Supreme Court for its decision. It has rightly pointed out that the government had acted ‘illegally’ and ‘irrationally’. The government feels they are above the Constitution and hence they had suspended the 12 MLAs on a false narrative based on events in the presiding officer’s (Shiv Sena leader Bhaskar Jadhav) chamber that never occurred,” he said in Goa, according to media reports.

Fadnavis, former state chief minister, also accused the MVA of “conspiring” to suspend the MLAs as they had been fighting for the rights of the OBC community.

“The MVA government should unconditionally apologise to the people of Maharashtra for abusing power and indulging in an unconstitutional and undemocratic act,” he told reporters on Friday.

BJP MLA Girish Mahajan, one of the suspended legislators, reportedly said: “The SC judgment is a slap on the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi government. The suspension was an act of vendetta by the government. They wanted to keep us away from the elections that were to be held for the Speaker’s post. This order to keep us out of the Assembly for a year, which meant we could not raise the issues affecting our constituency, was unjust. They could have suspended us for one session. The SC judgement is fair and has undone the wrong that was done to us.”

This decision of the Hon SC will save the democratic values & it is a yet another tight slap on the face of MVA Govt for it’s unconstitutional, unethical, unfair, illegal & undemocratic actions & activities ❗️

I congratulate our @BJP4Maharashtra 12 MLAs for getting justice.

— Devendra Fadnavis (@Dev_Fadnavis) January 28, 2022

Since the beginning, we were saying that it was completely unconstitutional & gross misuse of power to suspend our MLAs for such a long period to create artificial majority & that too for no valid reason & the Hon SC has upheld our stand.#12MLAs #Maharashtra #BJP

— Devendra Fadnavis (@Dev_Fadnavis) January 28, 2022

Fadnavis tweeted: “This decision of the Hon SC will save the democratic values & it is a yet another tight slap on the face of MVA Govt for it’s unconstitutional, unethical, unfair, illegal & undemocratic actions & activities.”

The MVA government said the decision to suspend the legislators was not taken by the government, but by the Maharashtra Assembly Speaker. State minister and NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik said: “The Speaker of the Assembly will take a decision once the Supreme Court’s written order is available. The decision to suspend 12 MLAs of BJP was taken by the Speaker and not by the government.”

Fadnavis, however, alleged that the “decision to suspend the 12 BJP MLAs was taken by the three-party (Congress, NCP and the Shiv Sena) coalition government. The government moved a resolution in the state Assembly and got it passed forcibly through voice vote. The opposition was not even allowed to speak on the matter”.