Pity that Supreme Court fell short of delivering justice: AAP reacts to SC's ruling on Maharashtra political crisis

Preeti Sharma Menon. Pic/AAP Mumbai

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Thursday said that the Supreme Court's ruling on the Maharashtra political crisis is a watershed moment for Indian democracy.

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal-led party further said that the manner in which the Uddhav Thackeray government was forced out of the office, with the active connivance of the Governor and partisan approach of Central agencies, was plain wrong and a huge miscarriage of justice.

Party's Mumbai president Preeti Sharma Menon said, "It is a pity that the Supreme Court fell short of delivering justice. However, they have adequately made it clear that the conduct of the Governor was completely suspect and just stopped short of saying that the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) misused the Governor's office to derail an elected government and to destroy a rival political party."

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"We hope the speaker in a time-bound manner takes a decision as per the guidelines given by the SC but frankly we have very little faith in the BJP. We are sure that a party that can spend 50 crores per MLA in order to grab power, is not likely to relinquish power by following any democratic processes," she added.

AAP Mumbai's working president Ruben Mascarenhas also slammed BJP and said that the saffron party's infamous 'Operation Lotus' was done surreptitiously but what has happened in Maharashtra is 'Operation Lotus 2.0'.

"If the rot is not stopped here, then this Operation Lotus 2.0 formula will be used by the BJP to illegally usurp power from legitimately elected governments in Opposition-ruled states. Constitution is supreme and rule of law must prevail," he said.

The Supreme Court on Thursday held that the Maharashtra governor was not justified in calling upon then chief minister Uddhav Thackeray to prove majority in the Assembly on June 30 last year but refused to order status quo ante, saying he did not face the floor test and resigned.

In a unanimous verdict on a batch of pleas related to the political crisis that led to the fall of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government led by Thackeray following a revolt by the Eknath Shinde faction, a five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud held that House speaker's decision to appoint Bharat Gogawale of the Shinde faction as the whip of Shiv Sena was "illegal".