Bengaluru: The JD(S)-Congress coalition government in Karnataka on Friday thumbed its nose at Governor Vajubhai Valla, ignoring his directive twice.
And as if to prove that it was in no mood to listen to him, Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar adjourned the House till Monday, agreeing to a suggestion by the Congress lawmakers that all the 20 members listed for speaking should get a chance to air their views. Failing this, it would be a denial of fundamental right to freedom of speech.
Before adjourning, the Speaker made it clear that finality would be put on the motion on Monday and the matter would not be prolonged further under any circumstances. Congress legislative party leader Siddaramaiah too assured that voting will take place on Monday, come what may.
The governor had sent a missive on Thursday asking Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy to complete the vote on his trust motion by 1.30 pm Friday. As the deadline passed, the Governor sent another letter stating that under no circumstances should the vote be extended after 6.30 pm.
Stating that he was pained to receive such ''love letters'' from the Governor, HDK said “I have respect for the Governor. But the second love letter from the Governor has hurt me…
I leave the decision on the floor test to you (the Speaker). It won't be directed by Delhi. I request you to protect me from the letter sent by the Governor.”
Kumaraswamy wondered what the governor was doing when the MLAs were being purchased with the BJP offering Rs 40-50 crore. Soon after making a long speech, HDK went silent and in the evening he was caught napping.
Giving him company was his brother and PWD minister HD Revanna. Kumaraswamy's bribe charge triggered a massive avalanche of charges from the Congress lawmakers with Srinivas Gowda naming BJP MLAs Ashwath Narayan and Vishwanath who had allegedly gone to his house with Rs 5 crore.
Other MLAs too alleged that BJP was indulging in massive trading of lawmakers with crores as bait. Promptly the BJP moved a privilege motion against Srinivas Gowda and slapped a defamation suit.
Into this quagmire, the Speaker too was sucked in. There were veiled suggestions that Speaker Ramesh Kumar too was bribed. Kumar flew off the handle saying that he was pained and anguished. For the next 10 minutes, he took the lawmakers to task for trying to drag him into their mess.
As the drama continued, it was action packed -- with money, pelf, horse trading, black magic -- even as Kumaraswamy and KPCC chief Dinesh Gundu Rao knocked at the doors of the Supreme Court wanting a clarification on the power of the whip.
The move is clearly aimed at the rebel MLAs. The strategy is that the Kumaraswamy government may sink any time, but it wants to take along the rebel MLAs too by slapping disqualification on them so that they cannot contest elections for the next five years.
The matter is likely to come up before the apex court on Monday. Gundu Rao, in his petition, said the apex court order “whittles down” the power of a political party to issue whip to its MLAs as it has a constitutional right to do so and the court cannot restrict that.
The order was passed without involving the Congress legislature party, which presently has 79 MLAs in the Karnataka Assembly.
By Shankar Raj
