Guwahati, Oct 19 A delegation of Congress leaders, led by Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Assembly Debabrata Saikia, has sought Assam Governor Gulab Chand Kataria’s intervention to end the ruling BJP’s “political vengeance” against the Opposition leaders in the state.
The Congress leaders met the Governor at the Raj Bhavan on Wednesday evening and handed him a memorandum alleging that the state’s current administration, led by Himanta Biswa Sarma, was “strangulating” the democratic tradition of opposing parties constructively criticising the ruling party.
They said that the state government was employing administrative machinery under various pretexts to “gag” any opposing voices and target the opposition leaders.
According to the memorandum, “The success of democracy depends to a great extent on the constructive role of opposition parties which checks the autocratic tendencies of the ruling party. It critically examines the rules and policies of the government and raises voice on wrong policies.”
“The main duty of the opposition party is to criticise the policies of the government and therefore, in a democracy, opposition must be given the space to make the government responsible and accountable to the public,” it further said.
Urging the governor to take action to ensure that the Constitution’s democratic ideals are maintained, the team requested for an environment in which the opposition parties may freely carry out their democratic duties.
MLAs Wazed Ali, Jakir Hussain Sikdar, Nurul Huda, Abdul Batin Khandakar, and Asif Md. Nazar in addition to Lok Sabha MP Abdul Khaleque also formed a part of the delegation.
tdr/shb
