Maha Speaker defends verdict, accuses Shiv Sena-UBT of 'lying'

Mumbai, Jan 16 (IANS) Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar on Tuesday strongly defended his January 10 verdict on the disqualification of rival Shiv Sena MLAs and accused the Shiv Sena-UBT of indulging in "lies".

Addressing the media soon after the SS-UBT’s town hall meeting, the Speaker said that ever since he had delivered his ruling on January 10, there have been attempts to create misconceptions and spread half-truths, and hence felt compelled to clear the air.

He outright denied all the allegations made by SS-UBT President and ex-Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, ex-minister Adv. Anil Parab and constitutional expert advocate Asim Sarode among others on various facets of his verdict.

Narwekar rejected the SS-UBT’s claims on the (undivided) party’s manifesto, and said that there was no record of anything except the 1999 constitution with the Election Commission, as per its letter.

"The ECI has given this to me in writing and for whatever I have said in the verdict, I have relied on the available records and documents. The EC has no record of the Shiv Sena’s amended Constitution of 2018. The Shiv Sena-UBT is lying," he said.

On the SS-UBT leaders’ allegations that he had violated the SC directives and committed a "gross contempt of the apex court", Narwekar countered by saying that "they have not specified what aspects I have not adhered to".

"I have delivered by ruling as per the directives of the Supreme Court," asserted Narwekar, reading out several points of his verdict, SC rulings and EC communications to justify his contentions. He categorically stated that the SS-UBT had only shown certain documents submitted to the EC, but they did not read out the contents to prove what they were about, and said there is no evidence to prove that Thackeray had been elected for the top post in his party.

Taking a jibe at the SS-UBT, Narwekar said that he was expecting that they would bring out some big wrongs he had committed in his decision at their mega-meeting, but nothing of the sort happened.

The Speaker said he did not even know whether to describe it as a press conference or a ‘Dassehra rally’ as there were only low-level political speeches made there. "They have called the former Governor, the courts, the ECI and the Speaker, all constitutional entities, names… It appears they have no faith in any of these bodies, then how can they believe in the Constitution?" Narwekar asked.

He termed such a trend as "dangerous for democracy", and sternly added that those who have no faith in the Constitution of the country have no right to criticise the democratic institutions in such a fashion.

Narwekar’s media interaction came after a marathon two-hour long town-hall style gathering in Worli held by the SS-UBT in which they slammed the Speaker’s January 10 verdict and urged the Governor to convene a special Assembly session for a no-confidence motion against him.