HVK Archives: Constitutional delinquency
Constitutional delinquency - India Today
Prabhu Chawla
()
March 9, 1998
Title: Constitutional delinquency
Author: Prabhu Chawla
Publication: India Today
Date: March 9, 1998
It has all the trappings of a high-powered political
confrontation. With the Head of State poised for a head-on
collision with a lame-duck prime minister, the stage was set last
week for some more rewriting of constitutional conventions. After
a brief spell, during which he seemed to follow the dictum "live
and let live", President K.R. Narayanan decided to be assertive.
Strangely enough, the chasm between the President and the prime
minister increased not on the issue of any appointment or
extension, but on the very vital subject of dealing with
burgeoning cases of constitutional delinquency which began with
Uttar Pradesh.
So far, Narayanan and I.K. Gujral had shared a cozy relationship
but the chain of political convulsions last week seems to have
snapped the links. With the outgoing prime minister playing
truant, it turned out to be just another lesson in political
dynamics for the rule-book President. For the past seven months,
Raisina Hill has literally been behaving like a rubber stamp of
the minority government. And when Uttar Pradesh's wily Governor
Romesh Bhandari dismissed the Kalyan Singh government without
even pausing to think of the reactions at the Centre, the prime
minister expected the President to either cave in or ignore it
altogether. Narayanan, it seemed, had some other ideas.
It was for the first time since last July that Gujral's plans
misfired. Not only did the President summon him to Rashtrapati
Bhavan a day after Bhandari's misdemeanour, but he also told him
to consider the possibility of recalling Bhandari. Instead of
taking the presidential advice seriously, the prime minister took
off on a four-day election tour. In the absence of any legitimate
government, Gujral's defiance was enough ground for the President
to show the door to Bhandari. Yet, Narayanan waited for a
judicial verdict on Bhandari's conduct. In an unambiguous
indictment, a division bench of the Allahabad High Court,
comprising justice Dilip Kumar Seth and Justice Virendra Dixit,
observed: "It cannot be ruled out that the power has been
exercised for purposes not warranted by law."
Such a judicial order would be reason enough for any prime
minister to act. But Gujral, over whom each one of his Cabinet
minister has a virtual veto power, spurned a politically and
constitutionally correct suggestion of the President seeking his
advice on Bhandari's continuation in office. For three days, the
President was denied even the basic courtesy of advice from
Gujral's council of ministers on an issue which was agitating the
entire nation. Instead, many of the UF constituents, led by the
CPI(M), launched a virulent attack on the President.
This is the second time that the President has come under fire
>from the UF. Earlier, he earned its wrath when he returned the
Cabinet's recommendation for the dismissal of Kalyan's government
in October 1997. But at that time, the UF swallowed its pride and
accepted the presidential assertion because of a massive surge in
favour of the BJP government although it survived only by
adopting dubious methods.
The latest standoff between the President and the prime minister,
however, underscores yet another point-both of them should stay
within arms distance and not hug each other, at least not in
public.
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