Faustian pact

We will support whoever dismisses the Mayawati government in Uttar Pradesh, so said Samajwadi Party chief,Mulayam Singh Yadav,yesterday. His demand marks a new low,even in an election as marked by verbal slip-ups as this one has been. It also brings to mind an older era. The first dismissal of a state government by the Centre was in 1959,when the Congress government dismissed the communist state government in Kerala. In 1977,the self-flagellating Janata coalition government closed ranks and dismissed state Congress governments. A re-elected and re-invigorated Indira Gandhi responded in kind in 1980,sacking non-Congress state governments. And soon after the demolition of the Babri Masjid,BJP state governments were sacked en masse.

Over the years,this trend has declined. Central governments have become more circumspect in wielding Article 356,no doubt helped by the rise of regional parties who are united in their loathing of Central intervention. A recent Supreme Court verdict has also made imposing presidents rule that much less arbitrary. In Rameshwar Thakur,the Supreme Court held Governor Buta Singhs decision to recommend presidents rule in Bihar to be partisan; the governor had to go. Mulayam Singh Yadavs demand seeks to turn the clock back on this hard-won convention. It also marks an extraordinary role-reversal in the evolution of Article 356 now regional parties will promise to lend their support to unstable Central coalitions in return for a hatchet job on their regional competitors. This trend is only likely to grow.

Mulayam Singh Yadavs comments are very probably maximalist assertions that he has no intention of following through. The same can be said of politicians in Tamil Nadu coming out in support of Eelam,Karunanidhi praising LTTE chief Prabhakaran,or Varun Gandhis verbal pyrotechnics. But what politicians say when campaigning sets the tone for what follows after. The national parties have to be prepared for maximalist demands to be raised then,but also have to be prepared to turn them down. They must not blink first; neither will that be in the national interest,nor is it that stable coalitions can be built on that basis. This newspaper supported the Samajwadi Partys alliance with the UPA on the nuclear deal,holding it to be in the national interest. But ousting an elected state government is self-interest,not national interest. This is one deal we can do without.