Governor’s Role Must Be Defined to Avoid a Repeat of K’Taka Drama

(Photo: Harsh Sahani / The Quint)

This is not the first time that an election result has been held hostage to the intrigues of a Raj Bhawan. Our history as a vibrant democracy will have to be punctuated with moments of shame when the mandate of the people has been disfigured by politically partisan governors.

Such situations arise repeatedly, purely because what the governor must do is not codified in our constitution. It’s left to his or her discretion. Those discretionary procedures are based on precedent and that is dangerous as there is a precedent for every travesty of democracy.

No Greater Travesty than Horse-Trading

In Karnataka, the Congress cannot claim moral high ground and the BJP cannot justify a situation purely because the Congress has done so in the past. Vajubhai Vala, who had a long history with the BJP and even vacated his Rajkot seat for Narendra Modi in 2002, is the governor at the epicenter of the current situation in Karnataka.

The BJP can certainly claim an electoral victory, for it is true that it is 26 seats ahead of the Congress and JD(S) as the single largest party. But it is 9 short of a simple majority.

Claiming that it has the popular mandate to rule is a flawed argument. While it’s a winner in terms of seats, vote shares of the Congress is 38 percent, 1.8 percent more than the BJP. Club the Congress’ vote share with the JD(S)‘s 18.3 percent and it is a 56.3 percent.

So, what the BJP has, is the ability as the single largest party to give a strong government. But the Congress and JD(S) together have more MLAs than a simple majority demands and hence, have the democratic right to prove their numbers on the floor of the house. If they fail, the BJP could be called, but not first.

The fact that the Karnataka Governor has given the first passage to the BJP certainly reflects partisan politics. Governor Vajubhai Vala will have to go by the numbers and nothing else.

One key factor is that in a fractured mandate there is coercion, collusion and inducement of MLAs to disrespect their party symbol and cross vote.

There is no greater travesty of parliamentary democracy than horse trading of elected representatives, and a governor’s focus must be to take decisions that will reduce that possibility.

Governors Have Usually Favoured Party at Centre

Governors, on most occasions, have created situations where the party that endowed them with the gubernatorial sojourn is at a better position to get numbers.

By getting BS Yeddyurappa to swear-in and giving him 15 days, Vala has given the BJP time and strength to poach MLAs from the JD(S) and Congress. A governor is supposed to only go by letters of support before him and that would clearly mean HD Kumaraswamy had the first right to prove his numbers.

To stop this drama from repeating itself, the rules must be written on the strongest stone possible and not left to the discretion of a governor, who is, after all, a political appointee.

In the absence of a candidate with a clear majority from one party, the candidate who shows clear majority from multiple parties must be sworn in first.

If he fails, then the next candidate with the most number of MLAs from a single or multiple party needs to be given a chance.

The governor should not be allowed to think beyond the authentic letters of support before him.

His or her only role must be to verify those letters in a transparent, time-bound manner. Further, the governor’s decision also must have a set 12-hour deadline from the time the results are announced.

Unless we lay down these guidelines by law, we may remain mute witnesses to ugly political maneuvers that derail the spirit of an election.

(The writer is an independent journalist. He can be reached @TMVRaghav . This is an opinion piece and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for the same.)

(The Quint is now on WhatsApp. To receive handpicked stories on topics you care about, subscribe to our WhatsApp services. Just go to TheQuint.com/WhatsApp and hit Send.)