Govt by Deception: Supreme Court Orders Floor Test in Maharashtra
The very fact that the Supreme Court has to intervene frequently to decide about the formation of governments shows that the democracy is already dead in India.
By Rakesh Raman
The Supreme Court of India today asked Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to prove his majority within 24 hours, as the opposition parties claim that PM Narendra Modi’s party BJP has stolen the election. The court ordered that the Maharashtra floor test of legislators – which will be be presided over by an interim Speaker – should be videographed.
Earlier, on November 23, Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar were sworn in as the Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra respectively. The BJP had formed the government surreptitiously in collusion with the President of India Ram Nath Kovind and the Governor of Maharashtra Bhagat Singh Koshyari. While both the President and the Governor are supposed to protect the Constitution, they preferred to protect Modi’s BJP in the state.
The elected MLAs claimed that they were tricked to support BJP-led government in the state. The opposition parties led by Congress termed the whole exercise as the murder of democracy. Congress president Sonia Gandhi read out the Preamble of the Constitution outside the Parliament today about the democracy in India.
The very fact that the Supreme Court has to intervene frequently to decide about the formation of governments shows that the democracy is already dead in India. If BJP is not able to form the government in Maharashtra now, it will claim again after a few months that it has the majority to dethrone the government. The case will again come to the court. It has become a kind of vicious trend.
As the opposition parties are extremely weak, they keep murmuring about Modi’s autocracy. But they do not have any option but to succumb under BJP’s highhandedness in every election. The Modi’s party either wins elections by tampering with electronic voting machines (EVMs) or by purchasing legislators like commodities.
The Supreme Court observed in its judgment today that BJP cannot be given more time to prove its majority because there is a possibility of horse-trading. A three-judge bench said that the newly elected MLAs should be sworn in by 5 pm on Wednesday (November 27).
The Shiv Sena-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP)-Congress alliance claims that it has the support of at least 165 MLAs in the 288-member Assembly to form the government in Maharashtra.
In its petition to the Supreme Court, the alliance had alleged that Devendra Fadnavis grabbed power in a secretive oath ceremony on Saturday morning, and demanded an immediate floor test.
By Rakesh Raman, who is a national award-winning journalist and social activist. He is the founder of a humanitarian organization RMN Foundation which is working in diverse areas to help the disadvantaged and distressed people in the society. He also creates and publishes a number of digital publications on different subjects.
