If Modi can impose President's Rule in Uttarakhand, why not in Haryana?
With an aim to decentralise policymaking and to ensure that even the last person in a village is empowered, the framers of our Constitution, adopted a multi-party democracy and a quasi-federal constitutional structure. At the time of independence, only the Congress represented the diversity of India.
However, the multi-party system allowed further diffusion of power to the grassroots, thereby providing an equal chance to any party, group or an individual to contest elections. The beauty of our Constitution is that the ultimate power vests in the hands of the people and no party can assume power without being elected.
The quasi-federal structure of our democracy further ensures that each state is represented on the national canvas by a party chosen by the people of that state and that the domain of the Central government is limited to its sphere of influence.
To further protect automomy, our Constitution specifically mandates a very narrow set of circumstances in which the Centre can exercise its "emergency powers" and take over the governance of a state. One way of exercising such emergency powers is through the imposition of President's Rule.
How can President's Rule be imposed: Article 356
On March 11, 1994, a nine-judge bench of the Supreme Court laid stringent guidelines regulating the procedure and circumstances for the imposition of President's rule.
Importantly, the apex court held that the primary test of whether a council of ministers enjoyed majority or not would be held on the floor of the House.
Only if the ruling party fails to prove its majority on the floor of the House can the Centre exercise power under Article 356 of the Constitution to impose President's rule.
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| ML Khattar failed miserably to tackle law and order in Haryana, yet no Presiden't Rule was imposed. |
National security (law and order) or breakdown of the constitutional machinery are the other two possibilities in which President's Rule can be imposed.
Knowing that the power to impose President's Rule in a state can be misused by a power-hungry ruling party at the Centre, the Supreme Court further ruled that any desperate attempt by the Centre to illegally capture elected state governments will have to be thrown out after judicial scrutiny and the victimised state government will have to be put back in office.
To the credit of the BJP government, its public statements often emphasise the supremacy of the Constitution and these judicial pronouncements. Recently (on November 27, 2015), while addressing the Parliament on the occasion of National Constitution Day, the chief strategist of the BJP, Union finance minister Arun Jaitley, argued that "the misuse of Article 356 has been phased out".
Taking a dig at the Congress, he assured the people that they need not worry as Article 356 was now in safe hands. However, a scrutiny of the BJP's actions presents a wholly different story.
BJP's interpretation of President's Rule and double standards
On March 23, the governor of Uttarakhand wrote to chief minister Harish Rawat directing him to prove his majority in the House on March 28, during a special session convened for the purpose. Being confident of his numbers, Rawat readily accepted. However, on March 27, just a day before the floor test, the Rawat government was communicated by the Centre that President's Rule had been imposed in the state and Rawat was no longer the chief minister.
Why no President's Rule in Haryana and Madhya Pradesh?
The ML Khattar government in Haryana failed miserably to tackle law and order during the recent Jat agitation and even the Haryana governor remained a silent spectator and relinquished his constitutional duty to recommend President's Rule in the wake of a complete breakdown of the constitutional machinery in the state. The Central government paid no heed to this situation.
Similarly the BJP was conspicuously silent on the jungle raj prevailing in Madhya Pradesh where chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan stood as an accused in the Vyapam scam and several whistle-blowers and were murdered in broad daylight. It raises intriguing questions.
In the cases of Madhya Pradesh and Haryana, if the Central government really walked the talk, it should have removed the governors and chief ministers of both states.
In view of the above, any accusation of a deterioration in the law and order situation in Uttarakhand or a breakdown of the constitutional machinery is laughable. The question that begs an answer then is why the Centre would recommend such an action in Uttarakhand. If this recommendation was based on the Centre's conviction that the state government no longer held the majority, why didn't it just wait for the floor test and let the law take its course?
The answer is simple. The BJP has been on a mission to quell opposition from all quarters and is ready to go to any extent to do so. Conscious of the fact that only the Congress can counter its divisive political agenda, and fearful of its declining graph, the BJP is on a spree to capture Congress-ruled states by hook or crook. How exactly this can be achieved depends on the specific conditions in the state in question. In the case of Uttarakhand, with only 28 BJP MLAs in a House of 61, the BJP could not have survived the floor test.
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| "Fake encounters" of democracy and misusing Article 356 are BJP president Amit Shah's new weapons. |
In such a scenario, what chance does the Constitution stand? After all, it is the legal basis of India's entire democratic set up, the document that these BJP politicians took an oath to protect while taking office. Under the BJP's rule, cooperative federalism has proved to be just another jumla, and since old habits die hard, "fake encounters" of democracy and misusing Article 356 are party president Amit Shah's new weapons.
Though the Centre's desperate move to destabilise Congress governments has already been challenged in the court, the dangerous manner in which the entire Uttarakhand operation was carried out can lead to a serious constitutional crisis in the country.
The Narendra Modi government believes that anyone who is not in conformity with its ideology or that of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), needs to be fixed. The recent developments further confirm that the BJP has now taken on the task of capturing power at any cost and in complete abuse of set constitutional provisions.
Rebels the ultimate losers
While there can be no disagreement that the ultimate harm of BJP's actions will have to be borne by the entire Indian population, at this stage, our heart also goes out for the rebel Congress MLAs from Uttarakhand who decided to switch allegiances.
Breaking away from the parent party automatically disqualifies them under the anti-defection law. This may have been worth it if they would have achieved their ultimate objective of gaining power under BJP rule. Sadly, this objective will never be fulfilled, since, if in the worst-case scenario, Uttarakhand is compelled to go to the polls, Harish Rawat will sweep them.
It is a matter of time till the public and the courts rebut BJP's anti-India campaign
It is no more a secret that where the BJP has to contest elections, the leadership steers its cadre to "manufacture" issues of religious disharmony, pseudo-nationalism and so on in order to divide the society and gain electoral benefit.
However, with the Congress' steadfast resolve to battle BJP's abuse of power in the court, the Congress will also continue to aggressively defy the BJP's plans for the people of this country, and it is a matter of time that the judiciary and the people will rebut the anti-India operations of Modi-Shah and company.