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If elected Prez, will remain accountable only to Constitution: Sinha
Sinha, a former Union minister who was in Lucknow seeking support for his candidature, said if elected, he will be committed to guarding the elected governments in states
Joint Opposition candidate for the President’s post Yashwant Sinha on Thursday said if he got elected, the “misuse of central investigative agencies” will stop from the very next day of his oath taking.
Sinha, a former Union minister who was in Lucknow seeking support for his candidature, said if elected he would remain accountable only to the Constitution and will be committed to guarding the elected governments in states. On his prospects of getting elected, he said he was confident and had influence in all the parties, including the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Addressing a press conference at the Samajwadi Party (SP) state headquarters, he said, “This time the presidential elections are happening in special and difficult--unusual and unpeaceful--circumstances. The society is being divided. Today, we have ‘society without recourse’. There is no one to listen to here. Even in the biggest of unusual circumstances, the PM stays mum. Those who are in power want the society to stay divided.” Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) national president Jayant Chaudhary were present in the press conference.
“One thing I assure you is that if the electoral college elects me the President, from the very next day of my oath-taking, the misuse of agencies (central investigating agencies) would stop. Now don’t ask me how. I will also prevent the Centre from toppling governments in the states. We all know what happened in Maharashtra,” he added.
Sinha also said if elected President, he would defend freedom of the press and added that he flayed the arrest of the journalist Mohammed Zubair. In the presidential election slated for July 18, Sinha is pitted against Droupadi Murmu, the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate.
Sinha also dared Murmu to “take a pledge in Lucknow tomorrow (Friday) that she will not be a rubber stamp and will not be silent on issues”. While Sinha campaigned in Lucknow on Thursday, and Murmu will be in the Uttar Pradesh capital on Friday.
Sinha, a former BJP leader who was a minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA government, said there are only two candidates in the fray and “this time whosoever gets elected will have to work with special responsibilities towards the Constitution”.
Talking about Lucknow and the late PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee, he said: “This city is Atal Ji’s and had closely worked with him. I feel very sorry for the state in which his party is today...There was great fun working with Atal Ji because he believed in consensus. He believed in ‘two-way dialogue’. When he was the PM, he asked us to sit with the Opposition and find solutions. But today’s leaders believe in confrontation. This government does not believe in consensus or dialogue. Even the presidential elections could have been held with consensus. The president could have been elected unopposed but this government does not talk to anyone.”
When asked about his views on the Centre’s Agnipath scheme, Sinha said, “It is not proper to impose half-baked schemes on people without discussion.” He said if he got elected, he will work as an impartial custodian of the Constitution and this did not mean a constant clash with the PM. “It is a prerogative of the President to counsel the PM. I do not have any personal enmity with PM Modi. I have a problem with his style of functioning and policies. The demonetisation is an example. Entire black money eventually turned white through banks. I have been saying that demonetisation was the biggest scam,” he said.
About NDA’s presidential pick Droupadi Murmu, he said wherever he went to campaign, he asked people if she expressed any opinion on the country’s circumstances, about foreign affair, etc. “Does she address press conferences on her visits or would she be a silent President?”, Sinha said.
On the possibility of a tribal (Droupadi Murmu) becoming the President for the first time, Sinha said: “The present president is from a community. Does any change or uplifting of that community happened in the (last) five years? Upliftment of one person does not uplift the whole society..”
On the use of bulldozers by the Yogi government in U.P., he said: “Akhilesh Yadav also used bulldozers to make world-class roads. The use of bulldozers by this government to demolish houses of people, that too of a particular community, is against the Constitution.”
SP chief Akhilesh Yadav said the Opposition with wisdom had chosen Yashwant Sinha as its presidential candidate. “The kind of circumstances the country is in, there couldn’t have been a better candidate than him. I also congratulate Yashwant Sinha ji for taking up the fight,” he added.
RLD chief Jayant Chaudhary too welcomed Sinha and called him a worthy candidate for the post of the president and added that the Opposition was with him. Sinha interacted with the SP and RLD MLAs at the SP office.
