Tags:
Journalism of Courage
NEW DELHI, MARCH 5: The Bihar imbroglio will be far from over even if the resolution imposing President’s rule in the state is introduced in the Rajya Sabha next week, discussed, put to vote and predictably defeated.
Though Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee said today, after an hour-long meeting with his allies, that a decision on Bihar would be taken on March 8 the government gave enough indications not to restore Rabri Devi as Chief Minister again even if the motion is defeated.
First, there is no precedent in the parliamentary history of restoring a dismissed government after the defeat of the President’s motion in either House of Parliament. The only time a government was re-installed was of BJP’s Kalyan Singh in UP. But it was on the intervention of the court. The government would prefer to let the proclamation lapse on or before April 12 and let the State Governor, Sunder Singh Bhandari, to take the next step to revive the Assembly and take other necessary steps under the provisions of theConstitution and law.
The government need not send the resolution back to the President, after the same is defeated in the Rajya Sabha, pleading for revocation of his rule in Bihar before April 12 i.e. the mandatory 60th day of the revoking the motion after the defeat. Vajpayee himself cited a ruling by Rajya Sabha Chairman Krishan Kant today relating to the resolution on when and how to table the resolution in the upper house.
It would also be prerogative of the government when to send it to the President for revocation within the 60 days period or allow it to lapse. Even if the Opposition parties disrupt the House for not revoking the President’s rule after the defeat in the Rajya Sabha, the government is mentally prepared for the eventuality as there is nothing significant on the agenda until March 18. As far as the Bihar Budget is concerned, a simple Presidential notification can take care of the same. Another factor being considered by the government and its legal luminaries is whether revocation ofthe President’s rule means automatic restoration of the Rabri Devi government. Legal experts including Attorney-General Soli Sorabji have conveyed to the government informally that it would be the prerogative of the Bihar Governor to invited leader of the group of parties who enjoys a majority in the State Assembly to form the government.
Since no single party commands a majority in the 324-member State Assembly including Rashtriya Janata Dal of Laloo Prasad Yadav, Governor may insist on fresh letters from RJD’s supporting parties.
It is said that the Congress, CPI and a number of other parties who have opposed the imposition of President’s rule in Bihar under Article 356 in Parliament, may not necessarily extend support to Laloo in the state for their own political compulsions.
