President's rule in Arunachal constitution's murder on R Day, says Congress

New Delhi, Jan 26  The Congress on Tuesday hit out at the Narendra slammed the government for rushing into the matter to impose President's rule in party-ruled Arunachal Pradesh, calling it a "murder of democracy and the constitution on Republic Day".

It also blamed the government for disrespecting the Supreme Court by bypassing it when the court was hearing the matter.

"The constitution and democracy have been murdered on this Republic Day. It is an effort by the government to nail federalism. The matter is sub judice and yet the speed with which the cabinet moved and the final decision has been taken is a clear indication that they have no respect for the highest court of the land," said Congress spokesperson Tom Vadakkan.

The party had moved the Supreme Court on Monday to challenge union cabinet's recommendation to impose President's rule in Arunachal.

"They could have waited for the matter to be settled by the judiciary yet they moved with express speed to ensure President's rule in a sensitive state. There is no indication of past or present breakdown of law and order. These are signals of imagination manufactured to fine-tune and legitimise horse-trading that was done by a cerain sitting minister.

"The matter should have been handled under the spirit of the S.R. Bommai case yet the argument being given that the house was not summoned for six months, but the ground reality is the matter was sub judice in the high court of the state and therefore that statutory requirement was met with," said Vadakkan, adding the attempt to remove the speaker by the deputy speaker smacks of a larger conspiracy.

"We expect justice from the highest court of the land therefore we would not like to add any comment on a sub judice matter," he added.