Thaindian News

Chandigarh, July 30 (IANS) Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Nitin Gadkari Saturday came down heavily on state governors, saying that they were acting like political agents of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government at the centre.

“Governors are acting like political agents of the UPA government. Deliberate attempts are made to negate the plans and programmes of the BJP governments,” Gadkari alleged in his address at a regional conference on “Policies of UPA - A Threat to Indian Federalism”, organised by the legal cell of the BJP here Saturday.

“Several legislations passed by the state assemblies have not been given assent by the governors in non-Congress states. Governors are neither rejecting nor accepting these legislations, thereby diluting the federal structure of the constitution at the behest of the UPA,” he said.

Gadkari alleged the central government is misusing investigative agencies like the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to attack states, as well as usurping powers of the states.

He accused the UPA of discriminating against BJP-ruled states like Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh and Himachal Pradesh.

Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal called for setting up a genuinely federal structure in the country “to make India the most advanced and powerful country in the world”.

“I don’t understand the logic behind a unitary form of government in a country which is so strongly federal in character,” Badal said, adding that states need to be given more powers.

“They have reduced the states to the plight of beggars at their doors, and the price for this arrogant political attitude has to be paid by the country, especially the common man who can have no access to the central government,” he said.