Enter the President

India's fractured polity leaves little room for any major executive action that will not snowball into a controversy. The BJP-led governm...

India8217;s fractured polity leaves little room for any major executive action that will not snowball into a controversy. The BJP-led government8217;s decision to recommend dismissal of the Rabri Devi government belongs to this category.

The decision may create more problems for the ruling coalition than it can solve. Coming as it does after the BJP-appointed governor8217;s publicity blitz in support of his 8220;fool-proof case8221; for the government8217;s dismissal, the move renders the Centre vulnerable to charges of mala fide use of power and makes the BJP leaders8217; repeated assurances against using Article 356 for political purposes dubious.

It gives a distinct political advantage to the Rashtriya Janata Dal, specially after it demonstrated a clear majority in the Assembly. Small wonder that even non-BJP parties which are not enamoured of Laloo Prasad Yadav8217;s style of politics rushed to his defence.

It will encourage some of the BJP8217;s own allies like Jayalalitha and Mamata Bannerjee to demand that the Vajpayeegovernment should stretch the same logic, or the lack of it, to dismiss the governments of Taml Nadu and West Bengal. AIADMK8217;s representative, Union Law and Justice Minister M. Thambi Durai made such a plea at Tuesday8217;s Cabinet meeting.

The Union government has cited breakdown of the Constitution, financial mismanagement and deterioration of law and order as the grounds for invoking Article 356, considered as the ultimate weapon in our federal Constitution to be used in the rarest of rare cases.

It remains to be seen if this will stand the test of judicial scrutiny in view of the apex court8217;s judgment in the Bommai case which distinctly disfavours toppling democratically elected governments on flimsy grounds.

President K. R. Narayanan has in the past demonstrated that he is not the one to sign on dotted lines. Should he return the recommendations for 8220;reconsideration8217;, as he did when the Gujral government sought to dismiss Kalyan Sngh8217;s government in UP not long back, it will only add to the BJPgovernment8217;s embarrassment.

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If state governments are to be dismissed on the grounds of poor law and order and financial mismanagement, quite a few other governments, including those ruled by the BJP and its allies in UP, Maharashtra and Delhi, present a fit case for dismissal. But legality apart, the case of Bihar raises some inevitable questions.

What was the immediate provocation for such a drastic action? How and when did the grounds cited for dismissal of the government surface? And what was the Union government, entrusted with the preservation and protection of the Constitution, doing all this while?

The Constitution, which casts this duty on the Union government, gives it enough powers to issue necessary directions to the state governments. And Article 365 says that if a state government fails to comply with the directions of the Union government, 8220;it shall be lawful for the President to hold that a situation has arisen in which the government of the state cannot be carried out in accordance withthe provisions of this Constitution8221;.

Even if the grounds cited for the dismissal are bona fide and valid, it can be argued that by not taking necessary remedial measures in accordance with other provisions of the Constitution, the government has failed to discharge its Constitutional obligations in the case of Bihar.