Thursday, October 17, 2013

Editorial, MOVING TOWARDS A CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS? in LAW ANIMATED WORLD, 15 October 2013 issue

MOVING TOWARDS A COSTITUTIONAL CRISIS?


With the Union Government behaving in the typically callous manner as succinctly expressed in the Telugu axiom: taamboolaalu icceasaam, tannuku caavanDi!” [As for us we have fixed it, now it is for you all to fight over that!] – not caring a bit for the more-than two-month old mammoth mass movement to keep up the unity of Andhra Pradesh raging in Seemandhra, it seems the Telangana Tangle is getting more complicated and difficult to solve. We even apprehend that a constitutional crisis may engulf the country if the Seemandhra MPs and Union Ministers, responding to the popular opinion there, intensify their obstructionist tactics – going even to the extent of withdrawing support to the Central Government which now stands on a slender majority of 3 only and also inciting other UPA partners to do so. But even otherwise, the inexplicable adamance of the Union Government/ UPA Chairperson towards the people’s movement in Seemandhra and their efforts to speed up the much-hated partition of Andhra Pradesh without paying regard to the well-established conventions and the federal spirit of our polity, may create a constitutional crisis and lead to their downfall, confirming the accursed proverbial situation – vinaaSakaalea vipareeta buddhii [perverse designs arise in ruinous times]. To our knowledge, no bill for division of any province has ever been prepared, let alone it being moved, until and unless the concerned State Assembly first passed a resolution in favor of such division or partition. This healthy convention cannot be given a go-by – it would be just like the President of India ignoring the convention of inviting the leader of the largest party/front to form the government and appointing some lackey and giving time and facility to him to later horse-trade and win a vote of confidence. Also, the special provision regarding Andhra Pradesh embodied in Article 371-D cannot be just wished away and no partition can be constitutionally valid without its repeal/amendment; that needs a constitutional amendment requiring a two-thirds majority vote in both Houses of the Parliament which seems impossible now. And we always pointed out that by following the wise recommendations of the Srikrishna Committee, the problem can be solved without any heartrending partition of the State. §§§