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Floor test the only way

A swift, straightforward floor test is the only way out of the political crisis in Goa. With one of the Congress members of the Legislative Assembly tendering her resignation, and two members of a supporting party and an Independent withdrawing support, the Congress-led government seems to have lost its wafer-thin majority. But Chief Minister Digambar Kamat claims he has the required numbers and he needs to prove this on the floor of the 40-member House. As the Assembly is in session, Governor S.C. Jamir, who returned to Panaji from New Delhi on Friday, has no role in fixing a date for a vote of confidence. Speaker Pratapsinh Rane, who adjourned the House amid unruly scenes, must give up any idea of playing for more time. When the House meets on Monday, he must set an example by not acting in a partisan manner.

Small States like Goa, which has seen 15 chief ministers in two decades of Statehood, are prone to political instability. As MLAs, who have only a small constituency to nurse, develop their political base independent of their party, defections become the norm. Often, denial of a ministerial berth is the reason for a member to withdraw support to the government. The Congress-led United Progress Alliance government must resist the temptation to precipitate a crisis and create conditions for imposing President’s Rule. Keeping the Assembly in suspended animation and bringing the State under President’s Rule in order to give the Congress more time than the Speaker can possibly do will amount to constitutional fraud. Despite the Supreme Court holding in the Bommai case 13 years ago that the Assembly is the proper forum for testing the majority of a government, and holding subsequently that horse-trading and use of unethical means cannot be cited as reasons for imposing President’s Rule, Article 356 remains a benighted and misused provision of the Constitution. Constitutionalism and democratic norms require the Centre to respect the right of the members of the Goa Assembly to decide through a simple floor test who should rule the State.

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