Cong against Advani's plea for invoking Article 355 in WB

By Staff
|
Google Oneindia News

New Delhi, Mar 15 (UNI) The Congress today disagreed with Opposition Leader L K Advani's demand for invoking Article 355 in West Bengal following the violence in Nandigram, and said a decision on this would be taken by the UPA's coalition parties collectively.

Refusing to comment on whether a decision to invoke Article 356 in the State might be taken, Congress spokesman Abhishek Singhvi said, ''It is not for me to state. It is for the Central government to decide.'' Till a collective decision was taken by the UPA Government, he had nothing to comment, he said.

Condemning the loss of life due to police firing in Nandigram, he said the police action was unjustified. There could be no two views to the fact that calm had to be restored there. Asked whether the Congress would accompany an all-party delegation to Nandigram, he said he did not see any problem in doing that.

Holding the CPI-M government in the state totally responsible for the police firing that killed over a dozen people in Nandigram, Mr Singhvi said his party was of the clear opinion that in a democracy unprovoked police action could not be supported.

Asked whether the Congress supported Mr Advani's demand for invoking Article 355, the Congress spokesman said only in exceptional cases of emergency Article 355, which provided for sending the military, could be justified. The situation there was totally different. ''To talk of sending the military there is to distort the Constitution,'' he added.

Asserting that Article 355 was ''totally inapplicable'' in West Bengal, Mr Singhvi expressed the view that the measure was justified in a situation of complete breakdown of law and order of the kind that afflicted the entire State. ''The situation is not appropriate for Article 355. Nadigram is a localised area,'' he added.

UNI

For Daily Alerts
Get Instant News Updates
Enable
x
Notification Settings X
Time Settings
Done
Clear Notification X
Do you want to clear all the notifications from your inbox?
Settings X
X