Milind Deora breaks ranks, tweets about dangers of ordinance on convicted MPs

Congress Minister Milind Deora today went against the Congress stand on the Supreme Court verdict on convicted lawmakers and said that protecting the convicted MPs and MLAs would make public lose their faith in democracy. “Legalities aside allowing convicted MPs/MLAs to retain seats in the midst of an appeal can endanger already eroding public faith in democracy,” Deora tweeted today. The Minister of State’s tweet raised a few eyebrows given he’s the first Congress MP to oppose the ordinance which has been roundly criticised by the BJP and the Left. [caption id=“attachment_1135525” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Milind Deora. Reuters[/caption] As the ordinance on lawmakers cleared by the Union Cabinet on Wednesday came under attack, Congress leader and I&B minister Manish Tewari took on BJP leader Sushma Swaraj, who had requested the President not to sign it, saying the constitutionality of legal enactments could be decided by courts and not by the opposition party. The Ordinance seeks to negate the order of the Supreme Court on the issue and BJP has opposed this move. The Ordinance to undo the apex court’s verdict was brought after the government failed to get a Bill to this effect passed in Parliament during the Monsoon Session. With agency inputs