The New Indian ExpressFirst Published : 17 May 2011 10:38:00 PM ISTLast Updated : 16 May 2011 11:49:46 PM IST
Karnataka Governor H R Bhardwaj is like a person who cannot be woken up because he is pretending to be asleep. His recommendation of president’s rule in the state is one more proof that he is unwilling to learn the basics of statecraft, raising questions about his competence to hold the gubernatorial post. Before sending the recommendation, which can evoke only derision, he should have turned the pages of recent history to learn that he does not enjoy any such power. Gone are the days when a governor could get away by dismissing an elected government, as in Kerala in 1959. No longer does any ambiguity exist about the governor’s role in situations in which an elected government’s majority is in doubt.
What has emboldened the governor to strike against the B S Yeddyurappa government is the recent quashing of the disqualification of 16 MLAs prior to the confidence vote it won in October last. The Speaker’s decision might have been questionable but, then, much water has flowed down the Kaveri since then. In any case, the new development does not give Bhardwaj any right to interfere in the functioning of the state legislature. If at all he had any doubt, he could have asked the chief minister to prove his majority in the House. In fact, he merely had to agree to the Cabinet’s request to convene a session of the House, where the Opposition could have moved a no-confidence motion, or a member could have asked for a ‘division’ on any Bill.
Instead of performing the constitutional duty of convening the House, Bhardwaj saw in the Supreme Court verdict an opportunity for petty politicking. There is the voluminous Sarkaria Commission report on Centre-State relations and several Supreme Court judgments, particularly the one in which the conduct of then Bihar Governor Buta Singh was condemned, which make the point as clear as daylight that it is on the floor of the House that the majority of a government is tested and not in Raj Bhavans. If Bhardwaj cannot understand this simple rule, he has no business to be in Bangalore
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