NEW DELHI, February 6: Congress today urged President K R Narayanan to stop Assam Governor S K Sinha from ``misusing his august office.'' The party is angry with the Governor over his refusal to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for sanction to prosecute State Chief Minister P K Mahanta in the Letter of Credit (LoC) scam.Mahanta, on the other hand, has accused the Congress of ``playing a dirty political game'' to tarnish his image.
Lashing out at Sinha, Congress spokesman Surinder Singh Singla held that ``the Governor's stand is that the quality of evidence (against Mahanta) is bad. We ask him how can he judge the quality of evidence? It is for the courts to decide the matter. We consider the office of the Governor to be above party politics. But in this case, the Governor has abused his office by not sanctioning Mahanta's prosecution. It amounts to interference in the functioning of the CBI,'' he said.
But Mahanta appeared unfazed. Asked to comment on the Congress decision to appeal to thePresident on the Governor's stand, he shot back, ``Let them go anywhere... they have already spoiled our country... the Governor has taken a judicious stand.'' Mahanta said that a Governor's sanction for prosecution of a Chief Minister was not automatic.
According to Singla, however, when some Congressmen recently met the Governor, he told them that there was enough evidence for sanction to prosecute Mahanta. ``The Governor,'' Singla claimed, ``further demeaned the office by discussing the matter with Prime Minister I K Gujral. Though he was appointed by the United Front Government, we expected him to grant his permission to the CBI as a matter of routine.''
Singla alleged that even the office of the Uttar Pradesh Speaker had been misused. ``The fact that the courts had to instruct the Uttar Pradesh Governor to take a decision on the issue of the defection of Bahujan Samaj Party MLAs showed that both the Governor's office in Assam and the Speaker's office in UP have been misused and abused for politicalpurposes.''
``Constitutional offices should not be misused and the Congress will make all efforts to uphold the dignity of these offices,'' he said.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
