After the apex court rapped the Centre and the Lt. Governor over the delay in government formation in Delhi, AAP and Congress have charged the BJP of “running away” from fresh elections, claims which were promptly countered by the party. This is again an instance where ordinary citizens are made to suffer due to trifling party politics among the rivals. As vindicated by the court’s stand on the issue, Delhiites have the right to a democratically elected government, of which they have been consistently been deprived of due to unwarranted backdoor interferences from the Centre, which seemingly appears interested in dragging its feet upon the issue for unclear reasons. Unfortunately, even such petty issues have to be taken upon by the courts to poke the executive into timely actions.
All mature democratic countries with a federal set up do not allow federal politicians to meddle in provincial matters. It is about time federal politicians ceased colonial practices and stopped treating provincial assemblies like children. Modi who says that he respects provinces and wants them to take initiative on many fronts ought to see that the current manipulations in Delhi fall well below the standard of good governance. It is high time, there should be amendment in our constitution; if a candidate receive 50 per cent of the vote casted then only he will be declared as elected and if they receive less than 50 per cent then the top two candidates should only contest re-election. It will establish the real representative of the people. To avoid money wastage on re-election that may become necessary in many places. To allow democracy to take its root in the country, random powers of a governor to keep an elected assembly in suspension ought to be removed in effect. The federal government should have no role to play in this as India is a federal state and no longer a colony under foreign rule and the provinces and territorial assemblies deserve the same respect as the federal MPs.
AAP feels that it may get a majority on its own. Horse trading by the BJP is very much possible and this will be encouraged by the new Central government. There is very little ethics amongst politicians and BJP government will form by spending a few crores instead of all its candidates even spending an average of 1 crore (both official and unofficial) each. To avoid these kinds of irregularities, the laws need to be revised to prevent horse trading. The anti- defection law has to become stricter and should cover resignations and abstentions from voting. The LG should have taken decision on government formation at the earliest. To conclude, all the controversies around BJP should end with them going for fresh elections in Delhi. Anyways, they are spending crores on horse trading, why can’t they go for fresh polls and prove themselves once again?
President Pranab Mukherjee has given his consent to Delhi Lieutenant Governor’s proposal to invite BJP to form the government in Delhi. In a democracy, President’s rule cannot go on forever and questioned why the authorities failed to act expeditiously. During the last hearing, the Centre had told the apex court that its stand on government formation in Delhi will only be known after Diwali as the LG’s proposal to the President seeking his response on inviting single-largest party BJP was still under consideration. The court was hearing a plea filed by AAP seeking dissolution of the Assembly and had earlier asked the Centre what steps it had taken to explore the possibility of government formation.
BJP is not confident of winning Assembly elections, which is why they are delaying it. It is playing dirty politics over the issue. If BJP had the magic numbers, it would have formed the government in the national capital. BJP knows it doesn’t have the numbers, and might decline further if it goes for fresh elections. The Congress, too, hit out at BJP in the wake of the Supreme Court reprimand earlier on Tuesday and said that it was adopting different “tactics” to delay Assembly elections in Delhi. Here is constitutionally no alternative but a re-election in this situation. None of the parties are extending any support to others, and no party has a majority on its own. There is simply no other option. Yes, there would be a cost to the re-election, but, given our constitution, we have to bear that. One could argue that we should put some provision in the constitution to address such stalemates in future, and I agree with that. One can’t force AAP to support BJP just to avoid a re-election. Hypothetically, AAP could argue that the money wasted due to corruption under BJP would be more than the election expenditure, and hence it’s not a right decision to support BJP. Moreover, AAP’s “Run and Gun” policy will not work this time. If AAP is serious, they should promote internal democracy first. Also, blaming LG doesn’t make sense, as he is doing his job to find someone to form the government. AAP should stop the habit of blaming everyone for everything.
Whatever it may be, all the parties should once again get ready for Delhi polls and finish the argument by forming government with whosoever gets numbers.
