oppn parties No Place For Whim in Democracy

News Snippets

  • India will fast-track deployment of 52 defence surveillance satellites
  • In a first, Hinduja Hospital in Mumbai helps patients draw up living will
  • Calcutta HC says that an arrest warrant cannot be issued against an accused who is on anticipatory bail, and if that person is arrested, he or she must be released as per the conditions of the anticipatory bail
  • Monsoon covers entire India 9 days ahead of schedule
  • Maharashtra government scraps order making Hindi the 3rd language in state schools after protests by civil society and opposition
  • A government report says that 64.3% of the population is now under the social security net, up from only 22% in 2016
  • The finance ministry has asked PSB to look at ways to monetise their investment in subsidiaries, by listing them on the stock exchanges
  • After auditor flags overlimit expenses, Karnataka Bank MD & CEO S Hari Hara Sarma and ED Sekhar Rao resign
  • Rosneft likely to sell its stake in Nayara Energy to RIL
  • Ola junks commission-based income model, opts for a daily flat fee from drivers with the hope of attracting more drivers to its platform
  • Torrent Pharma will acquire a controlling stake in JB Chem for Rs 18000cr by buying 46.4% from US fund KKR and another 26% from the public by making an open offer
  • Speculation persists over Jasprit Bumrah making the playing 11 in the second Test against England starting July 2
  • FIH Pro hockey: Indian women slump to their 8th successive loss as they lose to China 2-3
  • US Open BWF Super 300 badminaton: Ayush Shetty wins his first BWF world title by beating Canadian Brian Young 21-18,21-13 but Tanvi Sharma lost in the finals to Beiwwwan Zhang 11-21, 21-16, 10-21
  • R Praggananda wins Tashkent meet, become number 1 chess player in India with FIDE rating of 2799
The SIT formed to probe law college gang-rape in Kolkata has collected the hockey stick used to hit the victim and other rape evidence from the coolege campus /////// Rath Yatra stampede in Puri kills 3
oppn parties
No Place For Whim in Democracy

By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2016-04-22 09:12:19

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
The Uttarakhand High Court has delivered a master class to the NDA government on federalism and the use of Article 356. Despite the landmark Bommai judgment, which laid down standards for invoking the Article, Central governments have always used it as per their convenience and whim.

The invocation in the instant case was particularly galling as the Harish Rawat government was slated to face the assembly for a floor test just a day later. The NDA government plea that the Appropriations Bill was passed without a division should not have been an excuse for President’s rule as that was the reason the floor test was prescribed. The Centre should have waited for it to conclude. Was it because the Centre was scared that Rawat would get the numbers that it rushed in President’s rule with such undue haste?

Political gamesmanship should not be carried out at the cost of denigrating the country’s constitution. The governor is not a soothsayer and his warning that there would be turmoil in the state on the day of the floor test should not have been taken at face value. The test should have been allowed to respect federalism and best democratic practices.

Political managers of the NDA have goofed up big time and have been taken to task by the High Court in a series of scathing observations during the course of the hearing. But it will not change the attitude of the ruling classes. The Congress, which is now making too much noise about the lack of concern for democratic principles in the NDA, is guilty of worse acts in the past, including blatant misuse of Article 356. If and when the next time comes, most Central governments will misuse the Article, despite the Bommai judgment and the scolding handed out by the Uttarakhand HC in the instant case.