March 03, 2005
 

Democracy vitiated at Jharkhand

People undermine democracy in various ways. Kings sack Prime Ministers and Generals hold referendums in the sub-continent. Yesterday, Jharkhand's governor Syed Sibtey Razi invited Shibu Soren to form a government. Shibu Soren. Yes! Him! This was in spite of the fact that the BJP and its allies had in fact paraded their strength to him at the Raj Bhavan yesterday. In the 81 member legislative assembly, a simple majority works out to 42 MLAs. The BJP and its allies had 36 seats while the Congress and the JMM had 26. The NDA is obviously furious about what transpired.

Their problem though is the fact that there is no law under which the governor is required to invite a particular party/group to form the government. Credits here for someone who can provide me a link to any constitutional suggestions or provisions which mention how the governor should function in such a situation. Effectively, the functioning of Jharkhand's governor, who was a member of the Congress before he got his current post, has to be questioned. In fact the utility of such a post should be questioned given the fact that every governor is a political appointee.

There're two ways out: