Media Watch - The Governor of Goa M.V. Kamath Friday, February 18, 2005 11:45:21 IST http://www.cybernoon.com/DisplayArticle.asp?section=fromthepress&subsection=editorials&xfile=February2005_mediawatch_standard95&child=mediawatch
The very fact that Congress dismissed four governors as soon as it came to power indicated that it had respect neither for law nor propriety. Staying in power is all.
Talk of tyaag - sacrifice. If there is one thing the Congress - and its effete leadership - is incapable of promoting, it is tyaag. The Congress wants power, naked power and is willing to go to any length to command it. The recent dismissal of the BJP-led Goa government by a highly irresponsible Governor, appointed, as everyone knows, by the Congress, is a case in point. The Parikkar government led by a straight-forward Chief Minister may have been a little too harsh. But it was faced with the problem of dealing with a man charged with corruption and indiscriminate conversion of agricultural land into commercial for monetary considerations. Chief Minister Parrikar should have been congratulated for showing the courage to deal with such a character. One can understand the dismay of the Speaker in this situation. But he, too, has been accused of high-handedness.
High-handed action
The Hindu (February 4) accused the Speaker of 'partisanship'. Granting that, was the role of the Governor, S.C. Jamir any less partisan? The Free Press Journal spoke the truth when it said that it is a pity that "they wouldn't dismiss the Governor of Goa for his atrocious assault on the Constitution of India". As it legitimately put it, "after the atrocity against the Constitution in Goa we trust everyone has got the answer to the question as to why the great Shivaji Patil, Home Minister of India, no less, had previously dismissed the Governors appointed by the Vajpayee government". It pays, said the paper, "to have puppets in the Raj Bhavan". The Congress leadership should be thoroughly ashamed of itself. So should Jamir. But shame is not part of the Congress vocabulary. Jamir showed singular lack of understanding of the rules of the game. Therefore, said 'The Free Press Journal' quite correctly, Jamir must go.
According to The Hindu, the "hurried swearing-in" of the Congress leader Pratap Singh Rane "probably reflects the desire of the Congress Party... to avoid the imposition of President's Rule that would take the issue to Parliament and to the national level". Why "probably"? Congress does not want to take chances. The Governor's action was high-handed, indefensible and downright unprincipled. Sahara Time tried to be more balanced. It was critical of Speaker Vishwas Satarkar, to maintain that both he and the Governor "cannot escape the charge of constitutional impropriety and subverting the spirit of democracy" while at the same time asserting that "it is difficult to see any reason for the tearing hurry which the Governor displayed in discounting the vote of confidence and dismissing the government."
Said the paper: "The Governor has no constitutional right to decide the validity of the vote of confidence in an assembly... Jamir's decision is unprecedented in India's constitutional history in the sense that he has dared to nullify a Speaker's decision, whose legality could only be challenged by the judiciary". Even The Asian Age (February 6) was highly critical of the Congress and the Governor of its choice. The paper said that the dismissal of the government "is a travesty of the provisions of the Constitution" and Goa has been plunged into a crisis "with the Congress party having decided to gain power by any means, constitutional or otherwise". But what else does one expect from a party which is supposedly led by a tyaagi? Said The Asian Age: The Congress party is so keen to establish its control over the states that the means have become secondary to the ends." For good measure, the paper added: "Goa is a small case in point, but the confusion therein is indicative of the chaos that can be created by decisions that are both arbitrary and authoritarian. Ambition in politics is desirable but unbridled ambition running amuck can jeopardise constitutional polity". As if Sonia Gandhi cares for constitutional polity or propriety. To her politics and power seem to be synonymous. The Indian Express (February 4) was equally critical of Congress. Conceding that "Goa represents a breakdown not only of democracy, but also of institutional propriety" the paper said that "the Congress has had a rather dishonourable history in this regard".
That must be the understatement of the year. But like most other papers, the Express, too, tried to be 'balanced'. It said: "There was murky absurdity to proceedings. It was not clear to which party some legislators belonged. Obscure rules were involved to disqualify MLAs and the final vote count registered had little plausibility. Then the Governor compounded matters by dismissing the government and installing a new one. Even if he had reasons to doubt the integrity of the confidence motion, he could have called for another vote. Or he could have taken time to consider all options, including fresh elections". But fancy Congress trying to be fair. The very fact that it dismissed four governors as soon as it came to power indicated that it had respect neither for law nor propriety. Staying in power is all.
That is some tyaag. The word is being rapidly turned into a huge joke. The truth is that the law is being constantly broken with impunity by politicians. And this has been noticed frequently in recent times in Bihar. The Supreme Court had recently held that the factum of pendency of an appeal against conviction was irrelevant and inconsequential if, on a given date of filing nomination, a conviction existed. In such a situation a person whether he was a sitting MLA or not was debarred from contesting the polls.
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