Malikul Azeez Kaatib Can our polity think of bringing a law that no Governor should administer oath to any desirous chief minister, without acertaining and confirming the number of legislators supporting him. And this should be done in the state legislature with all the MLAs present in the broad daylight and not in the twilight of Raj Bhavan. "Confidence vote first and assupmtion of office only later" should be the rule and not the vice versa giving an opportunity for free horse trading and poaching of MLAs. Anti defection law must be amended to the effect that even if a single MLA defects from the party on whose symbol he has won in the election must be disqualified instantly and automatically.
Talking about the Maharashtra events, surely it was a mockery of democracy . An order is issued from the office of the President of India overnight and the President's rule is revoked before 6 o' clock in the morning and as if Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar were already present there, they are administered oath around 8 o' clock. Everything has been done even before the common man or even the officials or the other MLAs could get up from sleep and embark on their usual daily work. Particularly, when there was no clarity about the support of other NCP members and only a day earlier, Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress have reached a memorandum of understanding to make Uddhav Thackray , the next chief minister with the consent of Ajit Pawar.
Another interesting thing is that the governor has administered the oath to the same person who has has declined his invitation and has expressed inability to form the government only three days back.
If only the BJP had the confidence, they should have called for a floor test on the same day or the next to settle the issue in one stroke. But clearly they want more time to do some trading.
As had happened in other states like Goa, Manipur and Karnataka recently, BJP is trying to play hoax with the democratic practice. But the signals are that their game this time may fizzle out either by the Supreme Court order or by the floor test.
There are clear signs on the news media that all the NCP members are with Sharad Pawar and Ajit is waging a lone battle. It is a clear miscalculation on the part of Ajit. If he had not gone for this drama, he would have been comfortably placed in the same position in the company of Uddhav Thackrey and with the patronage of his uncle as well as his party's rank and file.
Of late, Governors' role had been under shadow, where in different states they are playing the role of the agents of the ruling party at the Centre without complying with the norms of the democratic process. And perhaps that is the reason they put up their own henchmen for this coveted job.
Driving the MLAs to different hotels to "save" them from poaching exhibits only their lack of integrity towards their party and the mandate they attained through the election on a particular manifesto.
