BJP’s mishandling of Uttarakhand crisis left even Pranab Mukherjee red-faced

The Centre not only has egg on its face on account of its political adventurism in Uttarakhand imbroglio, but, it has, in the process, ended up embarrassing President Pranab Mukherjee.

The Nainital High Court's landmark judgement not just upheld the tenets of the apex court’s judgement in the SR Bommai case, it has, in fact, set a new precedent. Henceforth, presidential decisions can also be subject to judicial review, with the court observing that even the President could make mistakes hence "his decisions are open to judicial scrutiny".

Opening up the venerable President of India to such a review and embarrassment could have well been avoided if the Centre had listened to his sage advice. 

The President, we gather, had reservations about the government's move to impose President’s Rule in the state. It so transpires that on March 26 night, after  the Union cabinet’s recommendation of President’s Rule reached his desk, Pranab Mukherjee, after carefully perusing the recommendation urged the central government to reconsider.

Later that evening, Prime Minister Narendra Modi despatched Union finance minister Arun Jaitley, to persuade the President to sign the proclamation.

Under the Constitutional scheme of things, the President can raise queries, and can even send back the cabinets recommendation to the government, but is duty bound to accept it if the Union cabinet decides to reiterate or send back the recommendation to the President.

President  Mukherjee knows the Constitution better than most, and left with no recourse, he duly signed the proclamation  on March 27. He  is known to be a stickler for constitutional propriety, and his decision not to push the issue beyond a point was guided primarily by his desire to avoid a constitutional crisis, which would have resulted if he refused to sign the proclamation.     

The Union government's misadventure in Uttarakhand defies logic. Elections are due in the hill state early next year and by all accounts the Congress government was finding it hard to fight the anti incumbency factor, in addition to the baggage of mishandling the Uttarakhand flash floods in 2013.

By joining hands with Vjay Bahuguna, the chief minister of that time, the man viewed by many as the one responsible for the inept handling of the crisis and the relief operations that followed, the BJP let go of the advantage that would have come its way at the time of the elections.

The BJP has more than reason to rue its mishandling of Uttarakhand. It has now presented Harish Rawat to don the mantle of victimhood and try and capture the moral high ground.

It has now provided the Opposition with ammunition ahead of the second half of the Budget session that commences next week. It has laid itself open to accusations that its promises of practising cooperative federalism were hollow.