Ordinance route amounts to anti-democratic exercise: CPI-M

NEW DELHI: Opposing the ordinance route for anti-graft bills, CPI(M) today wrote to President Pranab Mukherjee saying it amounts to an anti-democratic and partisan exercise.

"To promulgate ordinances to suit the ruling party's interests after Parliament has been adjourned on the eve of election announcement, will amount to a blatantly anti- democratic and partisan exercise," CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat said in the letter.

"I would like to register the strong opposition of our party to such a move," he said.

According to him, the Union Cabinet is considering a clutch of bills which were not taken up in Parliament during the recently concluded session.

Charging the government with doing nothing during the last five years on bills to combat corruption, he said government could have easily extended Parliament session for the purpose.

On the other hand, CPI(M) also drew the attention of the President to the reported move by the cabinet for proposing to bring certain amendments in the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act.

If this was true, it was a shocking and unconstitutional step that made a mockery of Parliament, he said.

It will also be establishing a dangerous precedent as the creation of a new state is a serious issue and cannot be a plaything for narrow political interests, he added.