The NOTA Button
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: September 28, 2013 -

It is funny how politics can work in such strange ways.

A day after the Union Cabinet on Tuesday bypassed the Parliament and approved an Ordinance to reverse the July 10 Supreme Court judgment mandating immediate disqualification of MPs and MLAs convicted for criminal offences punishable with a jail term of two years or more, the main opposition party, BJP and the ruling Congress have got themselves into a political catfight of 'Tu Tu, Main Main'.

The BJP, which had actually wanted a change in the law earlier and did not say anything when an all-party meeting on August 13 last arrived at a unanimous resolution on doing something relating to the apex court judgment on section 62(5) and section 8 (4) of the Representative of People Act suddenly, suddenly started see red and voiced their concern and opposition to the ordinance even to the extent of pressing the President not to give his consent while asserting that the ordinance promulgated to provide protection to the convicted lawmakers is unconstitutional.

On the other hand, the changing stand of the BJP on overturning the Supreme Court judgment gave ample scope for the Congress to hit back by questioning as to how Babubhai Bokhirla, a controversial BJP Minister in Gujarat, who was convicted for a period of three years, was holding the office by taking recourse to the struck down provisions of the Representative of People Act.

Here, Congress seems to have lost sight of the fact that its own Rajya Sabha MP Rashid Masood, who has been convicted in a corruption case, is not in an enviable position, either.

Amid all these 'nonsense' political catfights, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi dropped a bombshell by denouncing the ordinance passed by his own Cabinet four days back to shield the convicted lawmakers as a "complete nonsense" that "should be torn up and thrown away", during a surprise brief appearance at a meet-the press programme of his party's General Secretary Ajay Meken at the National capital on Friday.

The slamming statement that has come from none other than the scion of Nehru-Gandhi dynasty while Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh is abroad, has surely caught everyone, not just within his party but also on the side of opposition bloc, off-guard.

Even though Rahul Gandhi maintained that, 'it (the ordinance) is a complete nonsense', is his own personal opinion, the outburst is pregnant with meaning.

Apart from the outward appearance of difference of 'personal' opinions within the ruling party on the issue of allowing convicted lawmakers to contest in election, political analysts have not been able to stop themselves from wondering whether this is a message to the aging Prime Minister that his time has come to bow out or whether the whole episode is a stage-managed one to give the party an 'image' ahead of the forthcoming elections to the Delhi Assembly.

Nothing could be said for sure, because, as we have said at the very outset, politics can work in strange ways.

Anyway, we, the people, don't have to pay attention to any of these political churnings and speculations any more.

After all, we can now always press the NOTA (None Of The Above) button if none of the candidates, whether convicted or not, is worthy of our votes.