UP and down

There is a spectral question haunting the Centre and the Congress party in the wake of the recent Supreme Court judgment disqualifying 13 breakaway BSP MLAs of the UP assembly. Should the Mulayam Singh Yadav government be dismissed or not? Those who advocate the step argue that constitutional morality demands the imposition of President’s Rule in the state. Some argue that free and fair elections in a state that is shortly going to the polls are impossible, with Mulayam Singh remaining the CM.

The first argument has some merit but it needs to be weighed against two factors. While recognising that engineering defections are indeed acts of constitutional immorality, would correcting them by dismissing the UP government not imply another act of constitutional immorality, especially with elections imminent? The issue of the Centre dismissing a state government has always been a fraught one, especially after the Bommai judgment specifically recognised federalism as a basic feature of constitutional rule. Given this, and given the fact that the Congress-led Central government has a vested interest in seeing the back of Mulayam Singh in UP, such a move will justifiably be perceived as an act of cynical politics. The UPA may then want to think more clearly on the issue, given its controversial record in attempting to influence government formation in Jharkhand and Bihar recently. Even in terms of political pragmatism, such intervention does not always pay. Lalu Prasad Yadav’s continuance as Bihar CM after the hung verdict of February 2005 did not ensure his victory in the elections later that year. Perhaps the best way out then is for Mulayam Singh to test his strength on the floor of the House again, once the constitutional implications of the move are clarified, since he has only recently proved his majority.

As for the fairness of elections in the state under the present CM, we would only reiterate that it is up to the Election Commission to ensure that they are. The EC has done an excellent job of this in all recent instances. Let us have faith in the commission and in the system it represents.