The end came suddenly for Suresh Mehta. Aday after he won the vote of confidence, and an hour before the House met onSeptember 19 to elect a new Speaker, news reachedGandhinagar: Gujarat had beenplaced under President’s rule for the fifth time in its 36-year history andthe assembly placed under suspended animation. And the United Front’s statedabhorrence of the misuse of Article 356—and the Prime Minister’s assurancethat the Centre would not step in—had been thrown to the winds.
Governor Krishna Pal Singh cited thebreakdown of the constitutional machinery to recommend Central rule. But the BJPalleged that the party’s 19-month stint ended in its "model-state"because of a trap set by the Deve Gowda Government—on the eve of Uttar Pradeshpolls—in collusion with the state Opposition. Said BJP General SecretaryVenkaiah Naidu: "We’ll take legal recourse to challenge the Centre’saction."
The only item for the day when the Housemet on September 18 was a condolence motion for recently-deceased speaker H.L.Patel and former president N. Sanj-eeva Reddy. But when Suresh Mehta deviatedfrom the agenda without adjourning the House, hell broke loose. Pin cushions andmicrophones were flung at the treasury benches. The MLAs came to blows. Bloodflowed. Said Opposition leader Amarsinh Choudhary: "There was no other gobecause they (the BJP) had done everything undemocratic and unlawful."
Suddenly, things began to move at frenetic speed. The faction-ridden Congress,which has for some time pushed itself into irrelevance in Gujarat, sprung intoaction. A journalists’ delegation presented a memorandum to the governorprotesting the roughing-up of scribes and before BJP men could say LalKishinchand Advani, the governor’s report was en route to Delhi.
"Whatever happened was started by the Opposition and it happened within theprecincts of the House. This is the jurisdic-tion of the Speaker, not thegovernor," said Mehta. But there was no explanation for the patentlyunparliamentary methods used to win the vote although the party had seemedwilling, even ready, to lose the state if necessary only a month ago. When themoves boomeranged, the poor political thinking that had gone in stood exposed,slighting Advani’s image that much more. The BJP president had deputed hisclose aides to retrieve lost ground.
The governor had recommended President’srule twice earlier. First, when dissident leader Shankersinh Vaghela wasexpelled from the BJP a couple of months ago and some 40-odd MLAs had groupedtogether under his aide, Dilip Parikh. And then, when Suresh Mehta was paradinghis MLAs in Delhi last fortnight. The United Front reacted coolly to therecommendation. But Home Secretary K. Padmanabha-iah’s off-the-cuff remarks,followed by a TV interview of governor Singh had given the game away a bit.
There were several reasons for the UF’s measured response. It had promised sparing use of Article 356in the Common Minimum Programme; the Left parties were not in its favour and theJanata Dal and the DMK had been at the receiving end of it before; and it hadits hands full in Uttar Pradesh. But, within hours of the governor’s reportreaching Delhi, opinion gained ground that something drastic was called for.
Even the Left parties agreed that the Cen-tre had been left with no option.Said CPI Secretary M. Farooqi: "The BJP government should have proved itsmajority in the House but not after throwing the Opposition out." TheCPI(M)politburo said the BJP had violated all parliamentary norms and reducedthe vote to a farce.
Constitutional experts admit that not passing a condolence message at thepassing away of the presiding officer is indeed unprecedented in Indianpolitical history. But stalling of proceedings, and acts of violence andintimidation inside the assembly, they say, cannot be equated with breakdown ofconstitutional machinery. "In the ’60s and ’70s, fisticuffs were theorder of the day in the Bihar and UP assemblies. Were all those governmentsdismissed? Last year, the telecom scam stymied Parliament for a fortnight. Wasthe government sacked?" asks one legal eagle.
The chief minister, they say, could have been pulled up bythe Centre, and the governor could have appointed a pro-tem speaker since thespeaker was dead and thedeputy speaker had reported sick: "The SupremeCourt judgement in the S.R. Bom-mai case is clear: Article 356 is to be used asa last resort. Even the Sarkaria Commission says law and order situation alonedoes not warrant imposition of President’s rule."
So, what tilted thebalance? The BJP claims it was the Congress. Deputy SpeakerChandubhai Dhabi, whogranted recognition to the 46-member rebel group without roper verification inSeptember stalling the trust vote, is a Congressman. And governor K.P. Singh isan associate of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh, whose interest inthe Gujarat tangle was hotly speculated after Vaghela spiritedaway his MLAs lastSeptember to Khajuraho.
Mehta is sure the governor played dirty: "When hissecretary Avinash Kumar was found snooping around where he should not be, Ibrought it to the notice of the governor. The governor reprimanded him forbringing discredit to Raj Bhavan. But the man replied: ‘Sir, I acted on yourinstructions.’ He has done everything from forgery to lying to topple thegovernment."
BJP leaders in Uttar Pradesh hope to milk the Centre’saction in Guj-arat in the polls. But Vaghela, who is eyeing the gaddi,feels the BJP’s bluff has been called. Mehta says Vaghela won’t be able toform the government, but the rebel leader is banking on some of the 46 MLAS—includingthe 18 who returned to the BJP—of his henchman Dilip Parikh’s breakawayMahagujarat Janata Party, the ‘unconditional support’ of 44 Congress MLAs,and the backing of 16 Independents besides those who can be won over from theBJP. The former BJP chief Kashiram Rana has 12 MLAs in his ranks. While reportsabout potential floor-crossers surface, the BJP is pulling itself together.There is consensus on seeking legal help. But the ultimate test of the party’spopularity may be here. The BJP has fielded Vijay Harish-chandra Patel, son ofthe deceased speaker, for the Gandhinagar bypoll against the Congress’ RajeshKhanna. The outcome would prove whether the BJP has lost the state—or hasbecome a martyr.
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