Stealthy swearing-in post still-stealthy cabinet approval

SK Singh *

In the context of the emerging political landscape, ideology and ethics have taken a back seat much less the essence of democratic niceties. The recent mechanics of ministry formation in Maharashtra and even earlier the in Karnataka are undoubtedly testimonies to such cases of erosion of values, ideological backtrack of the highest order in the realm of constitutional safeguards reaching even the periphery of the office of the PM and the President.

Such not-so-decent political evolution would remain a dark spot in the political horizon of this vast subcontinent. This scenario can be easily rated as among the worst in the realm of implementing public mandate in an election in a state. The Maharashtra midnight drama just before the swearing in of the grand coalition ministry of Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress can be dissected from a number of angles.

First, the Maharashtra assembly election left a poor trail of government formation where the principal strategy turned out to be a desperate attempt to wrest power by hook or crook even at the cost of branding the Modi-Shah combine a lowly strategist causing their own fall that too shamelessly.

The Modi-Shah Gang ended up being derided where the aura of invincibility was shattered that too leaving a sad aftermath in the story of electoral politics. Never had such a gory aftermath of political game has happened in the past and this episode would remain casting a nightmare to the might of the BJP.

Second, recall how the PM was the sole stock holder in conveying the Cabinet approval for revocation of President Rule in Maharashtra. The story of the unearthly hour in the early morning the PM took a rather hasty decision to recommend, bypassing the full Cabinet, a history by itself, to the President. The sole reason, the clock was ticking nonstop for the impending swearing in ceremony of the CM and Dy. CM again in the few hours that follow.

The attached urgency, nay, extreme urgency, to this recommendation has had its fall back on the ultimate failure of the Modi-Shah strategy to quickly form the government. The understanding among the top gang being to engage in ‘horse trading’ to entice other MLAs to come to the rescue of the BJP led ministry. For this exercise to bear fruit, understandably, the Governor has been, in all possibility, taken into confidence and therefore the later very judiciously granted an unusually long span of 14 days for the Trust Vote.

Third, imagine how the President of this Indian Republic, the highest office in the country, had to lie in wait again in the early morning, a time usually for the President to be closeted untouched in his private suit. The reason again, a dictate from the PMO for the revocation order to reach the Office of the Governor of Maharashtra without further delay to enable the Governor to complete swearing in ceremony before 8 AM.

All these events encompassing top four offices of the President, the Prime Minister, the Home Minister and the Governor routing through in the wee hours of that eventful day. Isn’t this something of a record, in any case, a first in the country?

Fourth, visualize how the Governor after his recommendation to the MHA for revocation of the PR after he satisfied himself that Devendra Fatnavis of the BJP and Ajit Pawar of NCP would be able to form a popular government in Maharashtra. Mind you that the Governor a true former RSS, didn’t think it necessary how many MLAs of the NCP would be in reality, supporting the coalition government of BJP and NCP.

The brief he should have got from the PMO could be to grant maximum time for the party to purchase MLA’s like those in Karnataka and a true loyalist, the Governor sidelining ethics and convention was generous enough to grant 14 days only to be struck down by the Supreme Court to ‘ONE’ day that too, fixing 4.30 PM of the following day, with stringent strictures to telecast the proceedings of trust vote and to refrain from secret vote.

Fifth, the sequence of events from the staking of majority by the BJP with expressed support from the NCP, the Governor instantly writing letter to the MHA recommending for revocation of PR, the second letter from the MHA again ordering revoking the PR, all occurring within the confines of the nightfall to wee hours of the early next morning, attracted the conspicuous attention of the SC to the extent of asking the government of Maharashtra for submission of the two conspicuous letters by 10.30 of the following day.

Sixth, a ceremony of the magnanimity of swearing in ceremony of CM and Dy. CM in a major state like Maharashtra was held without the standard protocol of inviting by convention all the top police and civil officers, past CMs, all MLA’s, leaders of other political parties invited. Such level of stealth in such an important state function would remain a history telling how political parties could fall low only for one cause: complete the formality for the next exercise to follow suit.

Seventh, such below-the-table exercise has become a routine under the Modi regime. Recall the maneovours in Manipur two and half years back, in Goa a year later and more recently in Karnataka. In the 2018 state elections in Karnataka the BJP fell short of majority. And yet, the Governor, an appointee of the NDA invited the leader of the BJP BS.Yendiyurappa to take oath as CM granting time of weeks to ostensibly persuade Congressmen, to defect, again the usual game of ‘horse trading’.

The plan collapsed only because the Supreme Court intervened to take a quick floor test thus giving hardly any time for the standard ‘Gaya Ram, Aaya Ram’ maneuver. The exercise of trading could not be completed forcing the BJP to forgo the government formation.

What a connivance thereafter, the Yendiyurappa government returned back too soon when the BJP succeeded in persuading a whooping ‘17’ MLAs of the Congress and JDS to resign, reducing the Congress-JDS coalition to fall. Doesn’t this sordid story speak of the ever falling level of lowliness of the political leaders these days?

In 2014 Parliamentary elections Modi was voted to power largely of his promise to end corruption targeting the scam-ridden UPA(II). The message resonated with the masses fed up with the widespread breakdown in administration, a fall back of the effect of ‘coalition politics’, in the words of Man Mohan singh.

Modi’s outburst, ‘Main na khaoonga, na khane doonga’, was received well by the people. And now, by the beginning of NDA (II), how Modi-Shah Co. piloting all these under-the-table demeanors so regularly, so confidently, without hardly any remorse? And, more lamentably the highest offices in the country and the states are falling in line religiously without an inkling of common logic.