Cong resents Solanki’s ‘Badal as Prez’ remark
Wednesday, 22/04/2015
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PATIALA: Leader of the Opposition in the Punjab assembly Sunil Jakhar said here on Tuesday that the Congress was disappointed at Punjab and Haryana governor Kaptan Singh Solanki’s statement on hoping to see chief minister Parkash Singh Badal as the country’s next President.
“Solanki should not have spoken like this. There is already a President and here is someone wishing for another person to become the President. It does not behove of a person of the stature of a governor of two states to indulge in such talk,” Jakhar said. He added, “A governor should be apolitical and not make statements which emanate from political affiliations.”
“We expect the governor to stay fair. But here he is showing signs of being completely with the state government. His statement was uncalled-for and inappropriate,” said Jakhar.
Solanki had said during a university convocation in Phagwara on Monday that he hoped to see Badal as the next President.
Meanwhile, Congress leader Bir Devinder Singh demanded that Solanki be sacked for showing “utter disregard to incumbent President Pranab Mukherjee”.
“It’s and a gigantic gaffe and detestable act to project someone as President when neither there is any vacancy nor the appointment to the highest constitutional office of India within the jurisdiction of the governor, who himself is appointed by the President and holds office at the latter’s pleasure,” said Bir Devinder, former deputy speaker of the Punjab assembly.
In his view, it was even more irresponsible to make this public statement in the presence of a foreign head of state.
He said it was not yet clear what the governor was up to, “making a fool of himself, of Badal, or of the entire nation in the presence of the Mauritian President”.
