By Inder Malhotra http://www.tribuneindia.com/2008/20080125/edit.htm
WITH an audible sigh of relief, and in the presence of several Congress leaders, the Nationalist Congress Party has announced that the crisis in the Congress-led coalition in Goa, caused by the resignation from the ministry of three NCP and an Independent ministers, has "blown over". Union Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel, the NCP's trouble-shooter in the tiny state, has also declared emphatically that the Congress-led ruling coalition, headed by Chief Minister Digambar Kamat, is "safe". However, the question is: for how long? After all, it was the second "nearly fatal", politically speaking, upheaval in the Goa coalition in just seven months. Moreover, the crisis has been resolved at a rather heavy price. The "rebels" have got their pound of flesh in the form of reallocation of prized portfolios to their satisfaction and the formation of a "coordination committee" of the coalition partners. The dreary details of the bargain are of little consequence. What matters is the dismal fact that Goa, one of the smallest states and the newest member of the Indian family (until December 1961 it was under the occupation of Portugal), has become the microcosm of everything that has gone wrong with the Indian polity - fragmentation, factionalism, shifting loyalties, rampant corruption, uneasy coalitions and unending political instability. Indeed, the way things are going, Goa might soon start setting the pace for the rest of the country, rather than the other way round. There are four very disturbing implications of the Goa goings-on. The first is that the main purpose of most - perhaps almost all - politicians, irrespective of party affiliations, is to win an election by hook or by crook, to somehow get a finger into the power pie and then make as much hay as possible while the sun shines. This leads one to the second point - that, in an increasing number of cases, the sun does not shine for long. For, in an era when coalitions have become inescapable but there is no coalition culture, things are bound to fall apart sooner rather than later. Even in relatively balanced coalitions in various parts of the country, pathetically small groups and splinters having only a marginal membership in the legislature have gleefully held various governments to ransom. Goa is a delight for such elements because in the 40-member assembly, the Congress has only 16 seats and the rival BJP 14. With the help of the three members of the NCP and an Independent - Mr Vishwajit Rane, a son of Assembly Speaker and former Congress Chief Minister Pratapsingh Rane - the Congress-led ministry has acquired a wafer-thin majority. Two other small parties, the Maharashtra Gomantak Party and the Save Goa Front, which have two members each, add a little more ballast to this. But this time around these parties had little role because the resignations of three NCP ministers and Mr Vishwajit Rane were enough to bring down the ministry. The third steadily escalating factor perverting Indian politics is a combination of rampant corruption and virtually insatiable greed. Not to put any gloss on an extremely ugly state of affairs we have got to face it that relentless politicisation of the police and investigating agencies, shameful permissiveness of the top leadership of practically every party, the so-called compulsions of coalition politics and appalling judicial delays give the wrong-doers a free run. There was no dearth of the gift of the grab during the days of single-party governments. But opportunistic and messy coalitions have become unabashed perpetrators of unbridled loot. Their uncertainty about the durability of the opportunity only whets their appetite. It is no mere coincidence that the talk about the Kamat ministry's "imminent collapse" started immediately after all the 15 Special Economic Zones (SEZs) notified in Goa were scrapped at the state government's behest. A majority of the people of Goa may be opposed to these special zones on various grounds, including land grab and a threat to the environment. But powerful vested interests, insistent on SEZs, are at work and the number of politicos having a high stake in them is not negligible. The state of affairs is no different from that in Karnataka where the late unlamented coalition between the Deve Gowda family and the BJP won a place in history by making astounding allegations of corruption against each other. The fourth aspect of the Goa crisis is most deplorable, indeed disgraceful. Once again, a former Congress Chief Minister of Nagaland, Mr S. C. Jamir, now holding the exalted office of Governor of Goa, has acted in a partisan manner that is a flagrant violation of constitutional norms and proprieties, to say nothing of political decencies. At a time when the Kamat ministry was clearly in a minority and the state assembly's session to discuss and pass the appropriation Bill was on, the Governor accepted the ministry's recommendation to prorogue the House when the option of adjourning it sine die was open. The obvious motive behind this murky move was to take away the calling of the next session from the purview of the Speaker. Indeed, the session in which the Congress-led coalition can be challenged again can now be delayed for months. However, in all fairness, it must be acknowledged that Speaker Rane is no angel. Seven months ago he had come to the aid of the tottering Kamat ministry in a manner as malodorous as that adopted by Governor Jamir now. Mr Rane then bent every rule of business and all relevant provisions of the Constitution to save the ministry. The sheer brazenness of Mr Jamir on this occasion is shocking beyond words. A long time ago, in the famous Bommai case, the Supreme Court had taken the Governors to task for acting as agents of the ruling party or coalition at the Centre instead of being, as they should be, constitutional heads of the state to which they are appointed, and act impartially and in accordance with the letter and spirit of the Constitution. More recently, the apex court held as unconstitutional the abrupt dissolution of the Bihar Assembly and imposition of President's rule. The court also passed strictures on the conduct of the then Bihar Governor, Mr Buta Singh, who was forced to resign. Mr Jamir deserves the same treatment. Moreover, the Prime Minister and the Congress president need to tell the country whether the Goa Governor acted in consultation with them, and if he didn't what action they propose to take against him.