Sir,
Dissolving the j&k State Assembly clandestinely by the Governor Satya Pal Malik within no time after the regional party PDP claimed stake of
Government formation along with the support of JKNC and Congress shamed the democracies world over. The dissolution clearly manifests the arbitrariness of the centre. Impossing president’s rule under Article 356 without letting the mandate of the people prove the numbers on the floor undermines the mandate given to political parties by the people. Article 356 has remained in controversy since its inception. The reasons given by the Governor Satya Pal are astounding and very contradictory to his earlier statement of not dissolving the assembly and looking forward for the formation of Govt. The first reason the Governor cited for his unconstitutional act is the ‘different political ideologies’ of the parties who were claiming the formation of Govt. The second reason he put forth is that the Govt formed will be unstable and can pus the state into utter chaos.
Bizare! How can the Governor predict the instability before its formation? He is not to predict the stability of the Govt but to allow the constitution do its work. What stranges me more is the reason of comming together of different political idealogies to form the Govt. In case of JK there is always an ideological clash between Central parties and regional parties. Does that mean we will never allow the parties to come together to form the Govt? Every political party has its own agenda which ofcourse is her identity. But in case of fractured mandates the parties of different idealogies sink the differences to form the Govt. No doubt there can be apprehensions of instability but on mere apprehensions we can’t play with the underpinnings of the constitution. So far no party has approached the court which is an indication that they too were wishing for the same. Both NC and PDP seem okay with the dissolution beacuse the threat of factions that were looming from five months is over now.
Instead of dissolving the Assembly in this manner the Governor could have allowed the parties to prove the numbers on the floor. There are number of cases in which courts have struck down the dissolutions of State Assemblies on such grounds.
Shabir Bhat
on e-mail
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