'Goa speaker murdered democracy'

Arun Jaitley, noted advocate and former minister of law and justice in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, said that the manner in which the speaker engineered the vote of confidence in favour of Digambar Kamat, was masterminded by UPA chairman Mrs Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh.

Jaitly was addressing a press conference in the Bhartiya Janata Party headquarters.

"We would take up the matter in the Parliament, courts and on the streets," he said. The party leaders would soon be meeting in New Delhi in next couple of days to chalk out an action plan for implementation.

"When you have pigmies who are not competent to hold constitutional posts then this sort of situation would arise," he said. He ridiculed the manner in which the speaker of the state assembly disallowed three members of the Goa assembly from voting and thereby denying them right to vote. "There is nothing under 10th schedule which allows this. The speaker has to follow the full procedure. He would have to give notices and then hear the individual members and in the meanwhile the vote of confidence would have been held. He reduced the majority to create a tie and then immediately cast his vote in favour of the government," he said.

"We would explore every legal option and raise the issue in the parliament, courts and the streets," he added. He accused the speaker could be the aspirant for the post of chief minister as he had been chief minister in the past as well." This is a crime against democracy," he declared.

Bharatiya Janata Party MLA's along with party president Rajnath Singh met President Pratibha Patil on Saturday and submitted with her a memorandum requesting her to direct the speaker of the Goa state assembly to conduct the proceedings in a fair manner.

President Patil spoke to each and every MLA individually on Marathi and Konkani as Rajnath Singh watched the situation helplessly.