This article, by Kapil Sibal, appeared in The Indian
Express of 31may2005
(http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=71314)
Know your Constitution, Mr Jaitley
The BJP has got it wrong. The Bihar Assembly was
dissolved, writes Kapil Sibal, to prevent a
constitutional farce.
Our constitutional culture is completely alien to the
BJP. ‘‘Constitutional propriety’’ is not a phrase that
is part of its vocabulary. Intolerance, arrogance,
using expletives against high constitutional
authorities and political adversaries, unabashedly
protecting a chief minister accused of high crimes are
the BJP’s attributes.
Installing governments by instigating mass defection
and then shredding crocodile tears: that is the stuff
the NDA is made of. Laloo Prasad Yadav may have lost
the Bihar Assembly election, but his loss cannot be
read to be a victory for the BJP-JD(U). Ninety-two
seats out of the 243, if my arithmetic is any good,
does not constitute a majority.
Advertisement
Everyone knows why a government could not be formed in
Bihar. Ram Vilas Paswan, having fought the election on
an anti-Laloo platform, was unwilling to back the
RJD-Congress combine. He was equally unwilling to
support the NDA. On his part, Nitish Kumar never
staked a claim.
What went on in Bihar was not ‘‘political churning’’,
as Arun Jaitley puts it (‘‘Read your Constitution, Dr
Singh’’, May 27). It was the worst form of horse
trading. Luring legislators by offering ministerial
berths, transporting them in the middle of the night
to faraway places — and we know some LJP legislators
were whisked away to Jharkhand — are not acts of
innocence that escape the public eye.
The BJP would have us believe the LJP legislators had
a sudden change of heart and the act of being
persuaded had nothing to do with any offer of
gratification. Even the most hardened BJP supporters
will not buy that argument.
What was happening in Bihar at the behest of the BJP
and others was in fact a ‘‘constitutional
monstrosity’’. The foundation of the so called
realignment of political forces was horse trading. The
decision to dissolve the Bihar Assembly was taken to
prevent a constitutional farce.
The BJP has forgotten Gujarat in the aftermath of
Godhra. I am touched by the recent statement of one of
its leaders that what happened in Gujarat after Godhra
ought never to have happened. I wonder why this
statement was made in 2005 and not contemporaneously.
In fact, after the election in Gujarat in 2002, these
very leaders justified the massacres in public, saying
Narendra Modi had won a majority, and his position had
been vindicated.
Also, what happened in Uttar Pradesh in 1997 has been
conveniently forgotten. When Mayawati’s BSP withdrew
support, Kesri Nath Tripathi came to the rescue of
Kalyan Singh’s government by recognising a split of 17
MLAs to form the Janatantrik BSP. He knew fully well
that for a legitimate split from the BSP’s 67 MLAs,
the magic number was 23. Tripathi evolved the concept
of a ‘‘continuing split’’, unknown in constitutional
law. He went to the extent of saying 23 BSP MLAs met
him and expressed their desire to split, but that
there was a misunderstanding and only 17 split. And
his arithmetic got quite convoluted when he said:
‘‘Seventeen out of 23 is more than the required
number.’’
Why did Atal Behari Vajpayee then not go on
hunger-strike outside the Uttar Pradesh Assembly?
Perhaps the Constitution was not of any relevance for
the BJP when it came to retaining power.
Remember the ‘‘comatose’’ governor of Gujarat in 1996?
Yet the assembly was convened under orders of the
governor for a trial of strength. Could a governor in
coma have signed orders?
As far as Jharkhand is concerned, recent events shown
on celluloid have proved beyond doubt it was the BJP
that sabotaged the constitutional process. It is now
clear five independent MLAs were lured to ensure a
majority for the BJP. Perhaps this was a
‘‘legitimate’’ constitutional sin. In Goa, we have
seen 14 governments in 15 years. I don’t wish to
repeat the murky events in which the BJP willingly
participated to subvert the formation of a government.
The BJP might do well to remember how V.C. Pandey in
March 2000 invited Nitish Kumar to form the government
in Bihar despite Laloo being in a majority. In
February 1999, the Rabri Devi government was illegally
dismissed, based on a procured report on the law and
order situation. The government was reinstated after
President’s rule failed to get parliamentary approval.
L.K. Advani had said as early as in May 1998 that he
favoured political appointments to the post of
governor. That’s how RSS pracharaks were installed as
governors. That’s the BJP’s understanding of the
Constitution and its spirit.
The criticism that Manmohan Singh included ‘‘tainted’’
ministers in his Cabinet again does not carry much
weight. The seniormost leaders of the BJP were
prosecuted for crimes under the Indian Penal Code. At
that time Ceaser’s wife perhaps was not required to be
above suspicion. The presumption of innocence does not
apply to Laloo and Taslimuddin, it however applies to
Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi. That is BJP logic.
And what do you say about the upright Shreekumar who
contemporaneously recorded the uncivilised acts of the
party’s leadership in Gujarat? The fact is the BJP
leadership acquiesced in Modi’s pogrom. It is this
upright civil servant whom they hounded in Gujarat and
refused to promote. Manmohan Singh is undoubtedly a
decent man, and he does not need a certificate from
the BJP. At least he is forthright, unlike some BJP
leaders.
The author is Congress MP and Union science and
technology minister
Send instant messages to your online friends http://in.messenger.yahoo.com
