J&K governor dissolved assembly on directions of PM and PMO: Manish Tewari

JAIPUR: Congress national spokesperson Manish Tewari condemned Thursday the dissolution of the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly, saying Governor Satyapal Malik acted on the directions of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his office.

The governor abruptly dissolved the state assembly Wednesday night, hours after the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) staked claim to form a government with the backing of rival National Conference (NC) and the Congress. This was followed by another bid by the two-member People's Conference which claimed the support of the BJP and 18 legislators from other parties.

"The Jammu and Kashmir governor has played with the Constitution of the country. The act to dissolve the assembly has been taken on the directions of the prime minister and the PMO," Tewari said at a press conference here.


He said that the "unethical and unconstitutional" act taken by the Jammu and Kashmir Governor is condemnable. It reflects the mentality of the BJP and its leaders. They can go to any extent to form their government and strangulate democracy if any other political party forms government, he added.

Tewari alleged that the BJP in the last six months tried to lure legislators of various political parties, but it remained unsuccessful in its attempts.

The PDP, the NC and the Congress wrote to the Governor about their intent to form the government but he dissolved the assembly in a hurry, saying that his office fax machine was not working, he said.

Tewari challenged the BJP to name any one leader from the party who lost life in fight against terrorism.

"I am ready to name 500 people from the Congress. The BJP should name any one leader who was martyred in fight against terrorism," he said.

Replying to a question on the Ram temple issue, he said, "People in the BJP do not have faith in Ram or the Ram temple. The relation is limited only to encash votes on their name."