'White Paper': Invoking tearing of Ordinance by Rahul, Centre blasts UPA over 'weak leadership'

New Delhi [India], February 9 : In its 'White Paper' on the state of the economy during the UPA years, the Centre on Thursday came down heavily on the previous Congress-led regime at the Centre over its 'lack of leadership' from 2004 to 2014 under the leadership of then Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh.
Supporting its claim on the leadership question, the Centre invoked the tearing of an Ordinance by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in the presence of then-PM Singh.
The government, in its 'White Paper', added that the 'lack of leadership' in 10 years of the UPA "came out in full public glare, in shameful public tearing-up of an Ordinance".
Point 41 of the White Paper, which was tabled by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the Lok Sabha on Thursday, read, "Time and again, there was a crisis of leadership in the UPA government. It came out in full public glare in the shameful public tearing up of an ordinance issued by the government."
The reference was to the 2013 incident when Rahul tore up a copy of the Ordinance passed by then-PM Singh, overturning a rule that disqualified convicted MPs and MLAs as members of legislative bodies.
The Congress government at the time had to eventually scrap the Ordinance.
The Congress-led UPA had brought the Ordinance to get around a Supreme Court judgement, barring elected representatives from being members of legislative bodies upon conviction in criminal cases.
However, they were forced to roll back the Ordinance after a public remonstration from the Congress MP, who shredded the piece of paper in the presence of then-PM Singh, saying that it deserved to be dumped into the bin.
During a hearing in the Lily Thomas vs Union of India case, the Supreme Court ruled that "any MP, MLA or MLC who is convicted of a crime and given a minimum of 2 years' jail loses membership of the House with immediate effect".
The UPA government tried to bypass this judgement and retain section 8 (4) of the Representation of the People's Act that allowed lawmakers to not be disqualified for three months even if they are convicted.
Two months later, the UPA government passed an Ordinance negating the apex court order.
It was seen widely as a move to protect RJD supremo and UPA ally Lalu Prasad Yadav from disqualification if proved guilty in the 'fodder scam' case.
On September 27, Rahul made a surprise entry at a press event of the Congress in Delhi, days after the Ordinance was passed.
Tearing up the copy of the Ordinance in full public view, Rahul called it 'complete nonsense', adding that it should be "torn and thrown out".
Further, in its 'White Paper', the NDA held the the previous Congress-led regime as being responsible for transforming the 'healthy' economy it inherited from the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led government into a 'non-performing' one.
The paper had repeated references to the words 'weak leadership' during the UPA years.
The paper, however, did not mention Manmohan Singh by name, merely laying the blame on the 'UPA government' led by him.