My oft repeated refrain that the fourth and the most powerful instinct for our dear revered netas is always the instinct of power. It doesn’t matter a tad which party you belong to “ power is the biggest motivator in our system.
Last month’s drama in Uttarakhand proved my point once more. You have a 70 member State Assembly with a wafer-thin majority for the ruling Congress. The trouble started when in typical ‘Congressi style’, nine legislators raised their banners of revolt. Thus when the appropriation bill was tabled in the House these nine MLAs, along with the BJP block forming a total strength of 35, pressed for a division of votes “ to pass the Appropriation Bill. The Speaker predictably refused a division and ordered a voice vote to accept the Finance Bill and pass the Appropriations.
The Union BJP led government and the “party-with-a-difference” again in true ‘Congressi-style’ immediately went into a huddle and cried foul over what it concluded as a surest symptom that the constitutional process has been completely violated by the Speaker and that this was now a fit case for applying the provisions of Article 356 of the Constitution and imposing President’s Rule. This was however not the first of its kind case. Barely a couple of months back the Arunachal Pradesh government had to go on flimsy reasons, emanating from emotive issues of cow slaughter and the like.
I often feel nostalgic of the Indira Gandhi era. Mrs Gandhi used to sack state governments left and right to suit political purposes under the garb of the often misused Article 356.
Our makers of the Constitution did apparently foresee that this article could one day be prone to misuse by ruling politicians to get rid of state governments ruled by other parties and ultimately damage the federal structure of our polity. So they replied to the debates in the Parliament those days and said...”..the proper thing we ought to expect is that such articles will never be called into operation and that they would remain a dead letter. If at all they are brought into operation, the President who is endowed with all these powers will take proper precautions before actually suspending the administration of the province. The first thing he would do is to issue a warning to a province that has erred, that things were not happening in the way in which they were intended to happen in the Constitution.”
The next issue is that of the SR Bommai case. In this case the Supreme Court in 1994 laid down clearly that the strength of the ruling formation in the state government can only be decided at the floor of the House and it was not for the Governor or anybody else to decide whether a state government has lost its mandate or not.
If now this test is applied to these two cases of Arunachal and Uttarakhand “ more particularly in the Uttarakhand case “ the Governor had already summoned the Assembly for the ruling party to demonstrate majority on the floor of the House. In a tactical move the Speaker disqualified the nine revolting MLAs so that the strength of the Assembly stood reduced to 61 and to get a majority by the ruling formation seemed to be easier now. Shortly thereafter the tit-for-tat happened and just one day ahead of the floor test “ the elected government was dismissed and Presidents Rule imposed. All this when the State was scheduled to go in for its normal hustings in about nine months.
What was the unseemly hurry therefore that the government be dismissed just a day before the floor test?
The Union Government in my view had two options: a) it could have waited and seen whether the Government passed the floor test. Here the Chief Minister appeared to have cooked his own goose revealing horse trading in a certain sting operation and b) it could have dissolved the assembly and called for fresh elections along with the States which are going for elections shortly “ results of which are due around end of May “ so there was still time albeit short.
By this the Centre would have displayed probity. The Union Government most inexplicably went ahead chose neither and dismissed the State Government and imposed Presidents rule.
By this the Union Government did two things “ it only further queered the already queer pitch for passage of the legislative business which are hanging in the Rajya Sabha for months particularly the reforms agenda and further it scored an own goal demonstrating that things like federal structures and Constitutional proprieties are not of priority.
Fresh uncertainties are now in at the governments of Karnataka, Himachal, Manipur, Meghalaya and Mizoram.
I think it could do some real good if the Union Government stuck to its priorities under the development and reforms agenda. The rest could easily have waited. What can be the tearing hurry in putting a State to limbo just one day prior to a floor test “ and even if some unknown severe threats were in fact there, why should the State not be allowed to go back to the hustings “ the process of which could be relatively simpler and cost effective.
Meanwhile the hapless people are destined to see this funny game of snakes and ladders with frequent trips to square one.
Binayak Datta is a senior chartered accountant and a corporate consultant. He is also a visiting lecturer at prestigious educational institutions across Goa
