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UNITED NEWS OF INDIA
RANCHI, OCT 2: Union Minister of State for Forest and Environment B L Marandi today strongly supported his party's demand for issuance of a white paper on the `misuse' of Article 356 of the Constitution during the past years.
Advocating for a national debate on Article 356, Marandi, former president of the Bharatiya Janata Party Vananchal committee, stressed the need for redefining the article and the parameters of it's invocation.
The Congress governments, he alleged, had misused the said provision on many occasions.
The minister said ``If Article 356 cannot be invoked in Bihar, which is the fittest case suiting all the set parameters required for its imposition then there was no justification of having it in the Constitution''.
Claiming that BJP had been a gainer in the entire episode against it's political rivals including the Congress and the Left parties, he said that the Bihar crisis had clearly projected a polarisation of political forces on two divergent lines-one supporting the corrupt andthe other standing against the corruption.
Hinting at the possibility of a fresh realignment of forces, Marandi said the BJP and its coalition partners were doing well with the developmental works.
He said the Centre is committed to present the bill proposing creation of a separate Vananchal state, during the winter session of parliament. ``If every thing goes fine, the desired state of Vananchal would come into existence by the first quarter of next year '' he claimed.
Marandi said the Bihar state re-organisation bill, 1998, would in no way meet the fate of the women's reservation bill, as the two were of different nature. The Centre also has the advantage of getting the Congress support for the passage of the same.
He also criticised the Rashtriya Janata Dal for `disrespecting' the office of the governor by demanding the removal of S S Bhandari.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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