Games without rules

The NDA has won the game of numbers in Jharkhand, but some of the methods it employed to achieve this are morally no better than the manipulations that led to the installation of the Shibu Soren Ministry.

PURNIMA S. TRIPATHI in Ranchi

THE nine-day drama that began on March 2 in Jharkhand with Governor Syed Sibte Razi installing a minority government led by Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) leader Shibu Soren came to a conclusion following a decisive order from the Centre on March 11 that Soren resign, and the Governor initiate proceedings to put in place an alternative government. All said and done, the goings on in the State after the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) combine forced itself into the saddle of power with help from a pliable Governor set off a trail of unhappy events and set a bad precedent for parliamentary and democratic norms.

The circumstances that led to the installation of the Soren government, even as the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) paraded its majority support from Ranchi to New Delhi, have left too many questions hanging in the air. For example, was the Governor justified in inviting Soren, who did not have the numbers, to take oath as Chief Minister even as the NDA submitted to him a list showing the support of 41 Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) and even physically paraded them? Was the Governor being remote-controlled by the UPA high command in New Delhi, all the more so since two senior Congress Ministers and several senior party functionaries were camping in Ranchi to oversee the installation of the Soren government? Although Razi denied this after administering the oath of office to Soren, the question remains whether he was actually acting without any political pressure, ignoring the far-reaching political implications of his actions. It is also debatable whether the NDA was justified in holding on to five MLAs, including independents and others, the way it did, even shepherding them to a luxury resort in Rajasthan, keeping them in political captivity.

But the course of events in the Jharkhand Assembly on March 11 overshadowed everything else. The Supreme Court, acting on a petition by the NDA leader and now Chief Minister Arjun Munda, ordered that the Soren government prove its majority on March 11 instead of March 15 as decided by the Governor earlier, and that the pro tem Speaker conduct the Assembly proceedings with just one agenda: the confidence vote. The apex court also ordered that the entire proceedings be videorecorded and reported to it.

As the House assembled on March 11, it was obvious the UPA government did not have a majority. One of the MLAs supporting it, Kamlesh Kumar Singh of the Nationalist Congress Party , absented himself on the plea that he was unwell and got himself admitted in a hospital. (The State unit of the NCP subsequently claimed that it had merged with the Bharatiya Janata Party in Jharkhand.) With one member from the UPA, P.K. Balmuchu of the Congress, already having become the pro tem Speaker, the UPA's strength stood at 37 in the 81-member House.

Enos Ekka of the Jharkhand Party and Harinarayan Rai, whom the UPA claimed as its supporters, were seen seated with the NDA block, even professing on the floor their loyalty to that group. Having realised that they did not have the numbers, the UPA members, led by Deputy Chief Minister Stephen Marandi (independent) and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Girinath Singh (RJD), started disrupting the proceedings on flimsy grounds. First they said Ekka and Rai were "kidnapped" by the NDA at gun-point even as the duo kept refuting the allegation. Then they raised a point of order, that a pro tem Speaker could not conduct the proceedings of a trial of strength.

The Assembly then witnessed the unprecedented event of a ruling party itself disrupting the proceedings: the UPA members raised slogans, stormed the well of the House and displayed newspapers in order to support their theory.

An overly obliging pro tem Speaker kept adjourning the House time and again. From 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. the Assembly was adjourned five times, with Balmuchu not even trying to mention the main agenda of vote of confidence. As the House re-assembled at 3 p.m., he announced that as per the Constitution, a pro tem Speaker could not conduct the proceedings of a confidence vote, which, he said, should be conducted by an elected Speaker. Besides, he said he agreed with the observations of the Lok Sabha Speaker that it was not for the Supreme Court to decide the agenda for the legislature. He said the Supreme Court order had created a confusing situation and thus he would request the President to seek advice from the apex court under Article 143. Then he adjourned the Assembly until March 15.

At this point all hell broke loose. The NDA took to the streets in Ranchi, met the Governor and held protest demonstrations all over the city. The stink in Ranchi reached New Delhi as well. The high-level Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs (CCPA), which met at the Prime Minister's residence, decided that Soren should quit as he had failed to prove his majority and that the Governor initiate proceedings to install an alternative government. "In the light of the developments, it has been decided to ask the incumbent to step down and a new government be sworn in soon," Home Minister Shivraj Patil told the media in New Delhi after the meeting.

The Governor, who had in the meantime received a report on the proceedings in the Assembly from the pro-tem Speaker, summoned Soren and asked him to resign. The resignation came hours later at midnight with Soren holding an impromptu press conference saying he was not asked to resign, but he quit on his own "acting on his conscience".

The NDA legislature party leader, Arjun Munda, was appointed Chief Minister at midnight and asked to take the oath on March 12, which he did precisely at 4 p.m. along with the five independent MLAs. The Governor even called out the name of Kamlesh Singh, whose absence paved the way for the installation of the NDA government, for taking oath as Minister, but he did not turn up as he was still in hospital.

Before taking the oath, a beaming Arjun Munda told Frontline that he was not at all surprised at the turn of events because "truth had to prevail". He said he knew all along that he had the support of the majority of MLAs. "Just wait and see, I will have many more than 41 MLAs supporting me," he said, and he was proved right on March 15 when he took the vote of confidence. While 40 MLAs voted for him (Inder Singh Namdhari of the Janata Dal-United had been elected Speaker by then), the UPA was left with only 37 members. While Kamlesh Singh absented himself once again on health grounds, Joba Manjhi of the United Goans Democratic Party, who was a Minister in the Soren government, and Sukhdeo Oraon of the JMM failed to turn up. While Joba Manjhi said her car broke down, Oraon is yet to give any explanation for his absence. The entire exercise took a smooth five minutes, even as the UPA constituents kept shouting slogans inside the House demanding the disqualification of Ekka for flouting the party directive.

Arjun Munda, however, has a major balancing act to perform. He has also an enormous job on hand of keeping his flock together because he enjoys only a wafer-thin majority. No wonder then that the five supporting members, Sudesh Mahto and Chandra Prakash Chaudhary of the All Jharkhand Students Union, Enos Ekka, Harinarayan Rai and Madhu Koda (a BJP rebel), were sworn in Ministers along with him. His government would remain hopelessly dependent on them for survival.

Interestingly, the Jharkhand imbroglio has given a fresh lease of life to the NDA, which has now got an agenda: "Expose the facade of Sonia Gandhi's sacrifice." Ever since the Congress president declined the prime ministership after the Lok Sabha elections in 2004, the NDA has been hard-pressed for issues to criticise her. Now it can target her for the mess the UPA created in Jharkhand, saying it was of her making.

"Sonia Gandhi's halo of sacrifice has been dented substantially. No matter how much Congress leaders try to convince the people otherwise, people know the truth. In a party where even the legislature party leader is picked by the high command (as in Haryana), it is inconceivable that so much could have happened without her approval," said Rajnath Singh, BJP general secretary in charge of party affairs in Jharkhand.

He said the Jharkhand mess had given a fresh impetus to NDA workers all over the country. "We were being written off after the Lok Sabha elections. Now we are back with a bang," he said. The BJP leader said the unity its constituents displayed all through the Jharkhand crisis had made the NDA stronger and better equipped to deal with future political crises.

Interestingly, the loser in the entire drama is not the JMM but the Congress - the party's credibility has taken a hard knock. Popular opinion in Ranchi was that the Congress used Shibu Soren to further its own agenda - it wanted to run a government by proxy, led him up the garden path, but dumped him the moment the situation took an ugly turn. According to political observers, the Congress used Soren as a pawn in its political game to gain a foothold in the State but the moment the game went awry, the party leadership feigned ignorance about the developments in Ranchi.

Significantly, the role of the Left parties in resolving the Jharkhand crisis has come in for a lot of appreciation. Political observers in Ranchi are of the view that had it not been for the pressure from the Left parties, the Congress would not have yielded so easily. Shortly after the Assembly was adjourned in Jharkhand, Left leaders, including Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Harkishan Singh Surjeet and Polit Bureau member Prakash Karat, and Revolutionary Socialist Party leader Abani Roy, met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and impressed upon him the need for immediate corrective measures. The Prime Minister also spoke to All India Forward Bloc leader Debabrata Biswas, who was in Ranchi. It was only after this that the CCPA decided to call for Shibu Soren's resignation. "If one party cannot form the government, another will have to form it. A solution needs to be worked out," Abani Roy told the media after meeting the Prime Minister.

Although the UPA's undemocratic conduct in Jharkhand stood out, the NDA was not far behind in flouting democratic norms. The way the BJP held on to the five MLAs - they were picked up by helicopters from their respective constituencies, kept surrounded all the time by its members, and shepherded to Rajasthan for "some good time at a luxury resort" - speaks for itself. Even when they were brought back to Ranchi, they were lodged at Hotel Ashoka under tight security. Even when they went to the dais to take the oath as Ministers on March 12, they were made to climb the stairs first, closely followed by Arjun Munda and surrounded by over a dozen security guards. It almost looked as if the BJP was apprehensive that some of them might change their mind at the last moment.