PUDUCHERRY: Former Chief Minister V Narayanasamy on Saturday questioned the meetings of the Lieutenant Governor with BJP functionaries and urged him to stay away from politics.
Speaking to reporters at the Congress party office, Narayanasamy said, “The Lieutenant Governor has recently been meeting BJP leaders. BJP state president Ramalingam has been introducing party functionaries to him, and even Hindu Munnani members are meeting him. What is the background to this? According to the Indian Constitution, the LG should remain above politics. In Puducherry, successive LGs have stayed away from political activities and refrained from interfering in governance. Even during the Congress government’s tenure, LGs were not close to political parties. But former LG Tamilisai Soundararajan became a part of the BJP, turning Raj Nivas into a party office. Similarly, Kiran Bedi acted as a puppet of the BJP.”
Narayanasamy said, “The present LG is an IAS officer who had a good record of administration in Gujarat. I do not know how Gujarat functions, but people of Puducherry are very vigilant. It will be good for him and for the Union Territory if he keeps away from politics. The LG is supposed to be neutral.”
Referring to protests, Narayanasamy said, “On August 30, the Puducherry Congress organised a rally against vote theft and condemning the NR Congress-BJP government. Following this, on September 1, BJP state president VP Ramalingam led a protest by the party’s women’s wing, which laid siege to the Congress office. During the protest, they criticised Rahul Gandhi in derogatory terms, burnt his effigy and beat it with slippers.”
He said that despite complaints filed by sub inspector Murugan of Grand Bazar police station and a Congress functionary, the police had not taken any action or arrested anyone.
“They filed FIR based on the complaint from SI, which did not have much of the details. As no separate FIR can be filed for the same incident, police intentionally neglected our party people’s complaint with full details and evidences. The police are refusing to act due to pressure from the government and the BJP. If action is not taken, the Congress will lay siege to the DGP office after September 12 and, in the next stage, launch a hunger strike. Meanwhile, we will also approach the court,” he said. On September 8, the INDIA alliance will hold a rally from the Kamaraj statue to condemn privatisation of the electricity department and to insist that the department remain with the government," he said.