Democracy attains a new low in India By Nisser Dias nisserdias at gmail.com SMS to 9422437029
The recent development over toppling games of BJP led Karnataka government has its fall-out on democracy and sadly our democratically elected politicians irrespective of political party they belong, demonstrated that they will stoop to any level or even act undemocratically to either grab power or cling on to it.
But in this case the Congress led government in Goa bled democracy further by refusing leaders of BJP unit in Goa to meet their own partymen at a luxurious hotel in south Goa. 16 MLAs had rebelled against Karnataka chief minister B S Yeddyurappa and withdrawn their support to his government. The rebel traveled from Karnataka to Chennai to Bombay and finally arrived in Goa and set their tent in Goa.
It was but natural for the BJP party bigwigs to urge its partymen in Goa to convince or even induce the rebels not to topple its government. But the government had no business to thrown a security cordon of police around the villa of the resort where the MLAs were housed. If the rebels did not want to meet their partymen or the party emissaries for a dialogue they could leave instruction with the hotel staff that they needed absolute privacy, if the rebels felt that they still would not be safe they could have requested for additional security near their villa.
Now lets us consider that the Karnataka rebel MLAs including the independents requested the Goa government for police protection, the government could well do by posting some policemen or police officers in the lobby of the hotel to deter troublemakers. But dispatching most of the top brass of police officers from south Goa along with a huge contingent of police with direction to throw a cordon around the villa making it a virtual fortress was unacceptable. This very fact made the Congress led government in the state an abettor to defections and the presence of Home minister Ravi Naik, PWD minister Churchill Alemao and Power minister Alexio Sequeira at the resort in company of the rebels endorsed the BJP’s claim that the Congress party was involved in the toppling games in another state.
The politicians might say that this is politics but we should not forget that we live in a democratic country and just as the disgruntled rebel MLAs have a right to dislodge its government and the opposition parties have the right to support such a move, party leaders of rebels have equal right to convince them not to topple the government. But what the Congress led government in Goa tried to do is drill another nail in the coffin of democracy by trying to deny BJP leaders in Goa to meets its rebel party, this is not acceptable. This is an indication that Congress party crucified democracy.
Actually we should not raise eyebrows at the presence of Home Minister of Goa Ravi Naik being present at the hotel with the BJP rebels as he too thrives or rather gets kicks out of toppling games. I say this because he has distinction of being the shortest serving chief minister of Goa. After a successful coup against then chief minister Dr. Wilfred D’souza he attained chief ministership only to be ordered by the High Court to step down in just four days. Here the High Court had endorsed its mark that Ravi and gang had illegally, unconstitutionally and undemocratically toppled Dr. Willy’s government
Now let us see how BJP butchered democracy to stay in power in Karnataka. After their efforts failed to convince the rebels to withdraw the letter of withdrawal of support to the Yeddyurappa government a petition for disqualification of all the rebel MLAs was filed before the Karnataka speaker who promptly within hours decided the matter and passed an order disqualifying all the rebel MLAs. Here is an indication that the speaker either acted in a biased manner or was forced by the top party bigwigs as it was unfair to disqualify the independent MLAs. Even in the case of BJP MLAs they have rebelled and not defected to any party so where is the question of defection. Secondly it is very rare that petitions before the speaker are decided in such a hurry. In some case disqualification petitions are never decided at all and when the five year term of elected representative ends the petitions become infructuous.
The Karnataka government seems to have taken a leaf from Manohar Parrikar’s book. In 2005 when his government had lost majority, a disqualification petition was filed against then independent MLA Filipeneri Rodrigues as he was the part of the group that withdrew support to the BJP led government. On the day the motion of confidence was to be placed in the house, the speaker disqualified Filipeneri Rodrigues and asked him to leave the house. When he refused policemen were called to bodily lift out of the house. As commotion prevailed the motion was put to vote and decided in Parrikar’s favour. It was in 2002, that Manohar Parrikar paved the way to murder democracy in the August house to save the government and his chair thereby setting a bad precedent. And Karnataka speaker in connivance with the chief minister Yeddyurappa orchestrated a similar confidence motion and won. Over and above this party has the chic to propagate itself as a, ‘party with the difference’.
Congress and the BJP are the two major national parties in this largest democracy called India but none of the two follow the democratic norms and principles and have no qualms to bend them to suit their interests but the irony is we are still proud of our democracy.
Conclusively I endorse tyrant dictator Adolf Hitler’s view in his autobiography, ‘Mein Kampf, Democracy is not for people, who cannot be held responsible for their actions and decisions”. But then when it comes to electing our politicians, we the people of this country are laughing a stock for the world as we keep on electing the same old corrupt, self interested, criminals and illiterate individuals as our representatives in the parliament, legislative assembly, councils and panchayat bodies. (ENDS)
========================================================= First published in Gomantak Times, Goa - October 14, 2010
