Opinion - Editorials   

End the uncertainty

The flurry of activity in Karnataka with a section of the Janata Dal(Secular) legislators led by former Deputy Chief Minister M.P. Prakash seeking to support a Congress-led government in the State is clearly an act of desperation to avoid the dissolution of the Legislative Assembly. If the natural tendency of MLAs to cling to their seats rather than face elections has manifested itself in these aborted moves, the time for such unprincipled manoeuvres seems to be long past. The JD(S)-Bharatiya Janata Party government headed by H.D. Kumaraswamy lost its majority when the BJP pulled out after it did not get the chief ministership according to the original agreement. With the JD(S) either unwilling or unable to do business with the Congress, it became clear that a viable government could not be formed out of the present Assembly. If then the dissolution of the Assembly was inevitable, it had to be kept under suspended animation pending parliamentary approval of the proclamation imposing President’s Rule. This is the course mandated by the Supreme Court’s interpretation of Article 356 in the Bommai case — which clearly laid down that given the overall constitutional scheme, the irreversible course of dissolution cannot be resorted to until the proclamation is approved by both the Houses of Parliament.

Under Article 356, the proclamation imposing President’s rule in the State needs to be approved within two months, that is, by December 10. It became clear when President’s rule was imposed that the dissolution of the Assembly was only a formality, awaiting parliamentary approval of the proclamation. The interregnum was not meant to be used to explore the prospects of forming an alternative government out of the same Assembly. Yet the period of suspended animation has apparently kept the self-preservation instincts of some JD(S) legislators alive and they opened a line of communication to the Congress, which was willing to listen. That such moves have come to nought is no surprise. If enough JD(S) legislators had got on board and if the Congress were willing, an arrangement scrambled together in haste to avoid elections would have gone against their publicly declared positions and irretrievably eroded the credibility of both the parties. The leaders of all parties, and particularly of the Congress, must set their face firmly against such opportunistic politics. The UPA government needs to declare unambiguously that the dissolution of the Assembly is the natural and preferred course; and it should not allow the political atmosphere in the State to be vitiated further. The advanced winter session of Parliament can approve the proclamation early, and the uncertainty in Karnataka needs to be ended with elections held as soon as practicable, perhaps early next year.

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