PANJIM: Sashi Tharoor Senior Congress leader and the Congress canditae from his bastion of Thiruvananthapuram, said in Goa, today, that the big problem in our country constitutionally these days is that we have a parliamentary system being run presidentially by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In the true presidential system, the legislature is autonomous and independent of the executive.”
“In a parliamentary system, the executive emerges from the legislature. Now Mr Modi has taken advantage of this and is running the country as if he is the President. We do not believe that it is healthy for democracy. We believe in the notion that a prime minister, in a classic definition of the parliamentary system, is one among the equals,” he said.
“We have a coalition and that coalition will be taking the decision. After elections there will be a number of parties coming together to stop the BJP government from offering an alternative government and at that time I am sure the leaders among themselves will be able to find a suitable member for the post of prime minister,” he said.
“Did you expect H D Deve Gowda to become prime minister in 1996 or Dr Manmohan Singh in 2004? Once the results are announced, somebody will emerge and manage the team. Our slogan will be ‘Main Hee Hum’ (Me is us), whereas here we are hearing only ‘Main, Main, Main’ (Me, Me, Me) from somebody in Delhi,” Tharoor said.
The Congress leader said, “India has gone through very important challenges. We have made a lot of progress in some areas and sadly we see setbacks. Major danger we see today is our democracy. In the last few years under BJP rule one party is trying to dominate everything.”
He alleged that there is weaponisation of investigating agencies and oppositions are selectively targeted.
Tharoor said that BJP has displayed its weakness and desperation by locking the leader of a national Opposition party in jail.
“Why did they do it in the middle of the election,” he questioned.
“Is it democratic to freeze accounts of Opposition parties, BJP has done it to us. Is it democratic to lock up the Opposition party leader, who is chief minister of a State? They did it to Arvind Kejriwal. Is it democratic to selectively raid opponents’ helicopters? Why don’t they raid helicopters, planes or cars of BJP leaders? This is not the way democracy is supposed to function. The way BJP is functioning people can see how one sided it is,” he said.
“We need to protect our democracy, which is under threat,” he said.
