Governor Malik cuts a sorry figure even as BJP is outwitted in J&K

BJP’s attempts to form a government by engineering defections in other parties is the gold standard of parliamentary practice. But similar attempts by an alliance of political parties opposed to the BJP amounts to ‘horse trading’. That is the message sent out by the Jammu & Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik following the dissolution of the state assembly at 9.30 pm on Wednesday, which was a holiday on account of Id-ul-Nabi.

The other signal emanating from the state is for BJP’s allies, that aligning with the party is a sure ‘kiss of death’. Political observers are of course aghast and have described it as a ‘national disaster’ ( Shekhar Gupta).

The Centre had repeatedly ignored calls for dissolution of the House and even after Mr Malik took over as Governor from Mr NN Vohra, he paid no heed to warnings that keeping the House alive would encourage horse trading. Therefore, his sudden decision to dissolve the House is highly suspect and appears dictated by political considerations. By forcing the Governor to dissolve the House, NC-PDP and INC have prevented another BJP backed Government in the state and also the break-up of the PDP which looked imminent.

The Governor’s explanation that the Assembly was kept in suspended animation since June this year, when the BJP-PDP alliance collapsed in the state, is even more laughable. He has claimed that by keeping the assembly suspended, MLAs could still visit their constituencies, utilise their constituency funds and get some work done. By that token, the Governor should have been happy with any stable government in the state and there would have been no urgency to dissolve the Assembly.

BJP’s pointsman in the state, Ram Madhav, has come up with an even more ludicrous explanation, which he has tried to gloss over as humour. He tweeted on Thursday that PDP and NC had boycotted the recently held poll for urban bodies on directions received from across the border. He added that it was possible that the parties may have received instructions from across the border to come together and stake their claim to form the Government.

What is clear is that faced with a fait accompli and the prospect of an anti-BJP Government being formed, the Governor did what New Delhi wanted him to do. Since Sajjad Lone had also staked his claim to have the majority, the right course would have been for him to call for a floor test in the House. Had Lone succeeded in poaching 16 MLAs from other parties, he could have been in the saddle with BJP’s backing. It was only when the Governor and Lone realised that securing a majority would be difficult that the House was dissolved.

The curious claim that it was a holiday and the Fax Machines at the Raj Bhavan were not working and hence the Governor did not receive the letter from former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti does not even deserve to be dignified with a response. For at least six hours before the dissolution, TV channels were playing out the news of the parties staking their claim. Surely the Raj Bhavan in both Srinagar and Jammu have enough personal staff to keep the Governor informed of developments? In any case if the Governor was indeed blissfully unaware of what was happening, there surely could have been no urgency for him to recommend dissolution of the House late in the evening on a holiday?

That the dissolution of the House will be challenged in court appears a foregone conclusion. The Supreme Court has consistently frowned on Governors and the Centre playing God in deciding which combination or alliance would rule in states. If no single party gets a majority, a combination of parties need to come together and prove their strength on the floor of the House is what the court has repeatedly ruled. And there is little doubt what the court will rule in this particular case.

Another issue that the dissolution raises is whether we really need the fig-leaf of a Governor in states, if Raisina Hill is going to take the all-important decisions.