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A way out of the logjam

Harish Khare

The Election Commission's decision to announce a poll schedule for Uttar Pradesh has pre-empted constitutional mischief in the making.

INDIAN DEMOCRACY'S capacity for innovativeness was taken to a creative high on Wednesday evening. By announcing a poll schedule for Uttar Pradesh, the Election Commission has made a timely institutional intervention in a first rate political stalemate, blocking the President's Rule route. In more ways than one, the Election Commission has come up with a face-saver for all involved in the sizzling U.P. drama.

Technically there is no linkage between the authority vested in the Election Commission under Article 324 and the discretion available to the Centre under Article 356. The United Progressive Alliance Government can still, strictly speaking, exercise the option of invoking Article 356. But in the realm of constitutional morality, the President's Rule option stands virtually foreclosed now that the Election Commission has announced a poll schedule. It would be an act of utter folly — constitutional and political — for the Congress party bosses to insist on fixing Chief Minister Mulayam Singh.

Within the ruling establishment, the Manmohan Singh-Hans Raj Bhardwaj line stands vindicated. The Prime Minister's establishment and the Law Minister were together in arguing that the recent Supreme Court judgment in no way rendered the Mulayam Singh Government untenable. Arrayed against this line of interpretation was the Kapil Sibal-P.Chidambaram duo, vehemently insisting that the judgment had reduced the Mulayam Singh regime to a constitutional non-entity. Other Congressmen, in and outside the government, were pressing for the President's Rule option because they had convinced themselves that party president Sonia Gandhi was in favour of that course of action.

The Election Commission's decision also means the near-breach between the UPA and the Left stands contained, at least for now. Such a breach would have denuded the Manmohan Singh government of its very raison d'etre — a political and morally defensible secular governing arrangement.

With the announcement of the poll dates, the model code of conduct also comes into effect, and that partly meets the Congress concerns about the feasibility of free and fair elections in Uttar Pradesh. Congressmen from the State had convinced themselves that Mr. Mulayam Singh had placed "his men" in every administrative nook and corner; they can breathe a bit easy because the Election Commission can now be expected to go about methodically detoxifying the administration.

While the Samajwadi Party leadership can have the satisfaction of having successfully faced down the Congress onslaught, its victory is rather notional. The Samajwadi Party government's many advantages stand, in a way, neutralised. The blatant misuse of the official machinery for the party's favourites will come to an end, as other stakeholders — the Governor, the Bharatiya Janata Party, and the Bahujan Samaj Party, besides the Congress — will be entitled to invoke the Election Commission's curative intervention. Moreover, the Samajwadi Party stands denied a potent electoral plank. Had the Congress got the Mulayam Singh regime dismissed, the Samajwadi Party would have played the victim. Now the party would be required to defend its rather meagre record in office.

The Election Commission's announcement has also saved the President the possible embarrassment of having to turn down a Cabinet recommendation on bringing Uttar Pradesh under Central rule. Above all, the Election Commission has done the Congress party two very significant favours. First, the Congress was on the verge of jettisoning its nearly three-decade-old record of never having broken political bread with the "communal forces" [read the BJP]; in its over-anxiety to get rid of the Mulayam Singh Government the Congress appeared heading towards collaborating with the BJP and alienating its much-valued relationship with the Left.

Secondly, the Election Commission has also helped resuscitate Ms. Sonia Gandhi's political persona as a leader who plays fair. It has been Ms. Gandhi's successful endeavour to recover for the Congress the support and sympathy of the middle classes and centrist political forces, which believe in decency and reasonableness in public life. Ms. Gandhi's own decision to decline the prime minister's job and her anointment of Dr. Manmohan Singh went a long way towards retrieving the Congress' decency index. With the President's Rule option rendered unworkable, the Congress president has been saved from squandering away her hard-earned decency capital. For that alone the Congress and Ms. Gandhi should be grateful to the three wise men who constitute the Election Commission of India.

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