Still Bangalored

The BJP has claimed the support of 129 MLAs in the Karnataka assembly and is willing to parade them before the president if called upon to do so. It has also eloquently argued that, in keeping with the spirit of the Bommai judgment, new life has to be breathed into the Assembly which is at present in a state of suspended animation. To buttress its argument further, the BJP cites the October 2005 Supreme Court judgment which had declared the presidential proclamation dissolving the Bihar assembly as unconstitutional and pronounced that the shifting stances of political players cannot be adequate ground for the dissolution of a duly elected House.

The party is therefore justified in pressing home its right to form the next government in Karnataka, never mind the less than perfect political morality that characterises the state8217;s politics at the moment. Any hesitancy on the part of the governor to allow the BJP-JDS coalition to test its viability to form a government on the floor of the assembly could be construed as having gone against the spirit of court pronouncements on the issue. Therefore Karnataka Governor Rameshwar Thakur must necessarily be conscious of precedents, fairness and propriety in his handling of the present political crisis, as should be the Central government. The prime minister has promised the BJP that his government will be guided by constitutional norms. The next few days in Karnataka will reveal whether this indeed is the case.

But even as we say this, we make a distinction between the formal viability of a BJP-JDS government in Karnataka and its desirability. This newspaper has long argued for fresh elections, given the past rancour between the various coalition partners in the state and two failed attempts at providing a stable government. As if to prove us right, there is a looming shadow over the project the BJP so dearly wishes to see accomplished in Karnataka, and that is the shadow of H.D. Deve Gowda. He has just indicated in a letter to BJP President Rajnath Singh that he has no intention of allowing the BJP, as the party of governance, any measure of substantive autonomy, whether it is with regard to the distribution of portfolios or to the making of policy. The BJP should, even at this late hour, ask itself whether its passionate exertions in Karnataka are really worth it, or whether it would not be more politically astute to go back to the people and win their confidence on its own terms.