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Rabri urges President to sack governor

Former Bihar chief minister and Rashtriya Janata Dal legislature party leader Rabri Devi today urged President K R Narayanan to immediately remove Governor Vinod Chandra Pande for his ''partisan role'' in the formation of the state government.

In a fax to the President, Rabri Devi said the governor had ''gagged the democratic process'' in the state which, she said, had sent a wrong message to the entire democratic world.

The former chief minister said Nitish Kumar was made a scapegoat by the National Democratic Alliance. ''Kumar would be thrown out like former Delhi chief minister Sushma Swaraj,'' she maintained.

Appealing to all secular and democratic parties to wage a movement against the 'undemocratic' role of the governor ''in connivance with fascist forces'', she said a peaceful agitation had already been launched in the state against the ''illegal formation'' of the Nitish Kumar government.

She maintained the RJD had the support of other left parties against the ''puppet government'' and said they had called for a dawn- to-dusk Bihar Bandh tomorrow to protest against the governor's decision.

Alleging that Delhi had ''conspired'' with the governor in preventing the RJD-led alliance, which had majority support, from coming to power in the state, Rabri Devi said it was an open secret that they had the support of 161 members against the 151 claimed by the NDA. She wondered why the governor took such an ''undemocratic'' decision.

Reiterating that the Congress and left parties were with the RJD, she said, ''We are not much concerned that the governor did not invite us to form the government, but are worried over the failure of the democratic system which may lead to fascist rule in the country.''

She also urged other parties to support tomorrow's bandh.

The former chief minister said the people spontaneously took to the streets to protest the governor's decision, adding that such protests would continue till the decision was reversed.

Meanwhile, rail and road services were severely affected in the state as RJD activists blocked movement at different places since early today to protest the installation of the NDA government.

UNI

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