The penultimate day of the tamasha in Uttarakhand saw the Congress Party claiming victory. Sacked Chief Minister Harish Rawat said he had polled in the Supreme Court-ordered headcount 33 votes against 28 for the Opposition BJP.
He may be right, though the official result will be declared by the Supreme Court on Wednesday morning when the report of the Principal Secretary of the Assembly who was tasked to conduct the poll will be opened in the presence of lawyers representing rival groups.
The outcome should not surprise anyone. With the Speaker of the Assembly earlier disqualifying nine Congress rebels, and the courts refusing to stay his order, the scales were tilted heavily in favour of the former Chief Minister. His restoration to office following the withdrawal of the central rule ought to be assumed as automatic once the apex court officially declares the result of Tuesday’s vote. Without doubt, it is an embarrassment for the Modi Government.
It displayed unbecoming hurry in imposing President’s rule without taking into account the consequences. The central intervention on the eve of the scheduled trust vote in the Assembly should have been avoided. In the game of one-upmanship the Speaker of the Assembly won the battle for Rawat when he hurriedly disqualified the nine Congress rebels without waiting for their replies to the show cause notices he had issued to them.
This was unfair, and even unjust, but par for the course, especially when both sides were engaged in a no-holds-barred power struggle. The BJP staked its prestige by jumping into the fray, encouraging the Congress rebels as part of its larger game-plan to downsize the influence and reach of the Congress in the country. It succeeded in Arunachal Pradesh, but it has failed in Uttarakhand.
The party leadership showed a remarkable lack of finesse and cleverness in handling the changing situation following the controversial dismissal of the Rawat Government. Lack of a Chanakyaesque niti cannot be compensated by the use of crude and coarse tactics. The resulting loss of public image can be hard to make up should the BJP leadership continue to persist on this course of unthinking confrontation with the Congress governments.
The party general secretary in charge of Uttarakhand, Kailash Vijayvargiya, must be penalised for causing the Modi Government an avoidable loss of face. As for the Congress, the victory in the trust vote could prove pyrrhic should it fail to undertake a serious house-cleaning. It is saddled with corrupt and criminal elements who without a share in the power-pie turn rebellious. In the case of Uttarakhand, the arrogance and corruption of Rawat further fuelled hostility against him inside the party.
Besides, the high command culture which stipulates the nomination of chief ministers rather than their election by legislature parties is a recipe for internal dissensions and disaffections. Uttarakhand, thus, is a reminder to all the protagonists involved to apply internal correctives. Orderly constitutionalism also calls for a minimal possible recourse to Article 356.
What have we come to, questioning the authenticity of the Prime Minister’s educational qualifications without an iota of concern such boorish conduct does to the constitutional office? The irresponsibleness of the AAP leadership does not surprise anyone. A mix of crudity and opportunism has enabled them to exploit the deep-seated disenchantment with the political class. Every day they plumb newer depths of gutter politics by throwing muck at rivals.
Misusing taxpayers’ rupees, the AAP loudmouths succeed in getting a bigger play in the media than is warranted by the party’s presence on the political map of the country. Thus, it asked to examine the degrees of Modi. The ruling party president and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley ought to have displayed better sense than to fall in their tar-every- leader trap. Immediately, the AAP disruptionists called them fake. There can be no end to this kind of adventurist politics.
Though Kejriwal and his band of opportunists have a lot of dirt hidden in their own closets, their holier-than-thou attitude is beginning to prove counter-productive. The fact that both Delhi University and Gujarat University have duly attested to the authenticity of the degrees displayed by Amit Shah ought to signal to the purveyors of gutter politics to move on. They are likely to keep the controversy alive for some more time.
Unfortunately, the national media in thrall of the Rs. 526-crore annual advertisement budget of the AAP Government are unlikely to restore balance and fair play in the reportage. Thus the AAP dealers in muck and abuse will continue to claim media space far beyond their weight on the ground or the demands of fair and balanced news coverage. Paisa bolta hai. And no-one knows it better than AAP.
