Damning indictment of BJP

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has suffered yet another damning humiliation with the Supreme Court verdict on Arunachal Pradesh. It is much more embarrassing for Narendra Modi-led central government as it comes close on the heels of Uttarakhand fiasco.

Though, the Congress is the beneficiary in both the cases, it is actually a celebration time for the Indian democracy. The judicial activism has checkmated the Constitutional coup. The verdict is a critical opprobrium of the prevailing political culture in which the Constitutional authorities are used for a Constitutional subterfuge.

The BJP leadership both in the party and the government should be morally accountable for the political misadventure. Such brazen acts of political myopia have only undermined the party‘s resolve to achieve Congress-mukth Bharat. The opposition would certainly make a spectacle of the apex court judgment in the ensuing Parliament session, much to the NDA’s discomfiture.

Not that such verdict was not delivered in the past. But, certainly, the Arunachal verdict is historic as perhaps for the first time the highest court has restored the status quo ante. Notwithstanding the BJP’s empty rhetoric that Arunachal Pradesh developments are an internal crisis of the Congress, the fact remains that the ruling party at the Centre has clearly lost the political and perception battle.

The l’affaire Arunachal yet again reveals that the checks and balances inherent to the Indian Constitution do not allow the Central government’s tanashahi in repeatedly indulging in travesty of federalism.

The BJP cannot absolve itself of dubious acts in Arunachal Pradesh or Uttarakhand by hurling political epithets at Congress. It’s true; Congress is not a pearl of democracy. But, the nation did not hope for resurrection of Congress culture in the BJP rule.

It’s unbecoming of cooperative federalism to destabilise the elected State governments, just because the people have given mandate to the opposition. Fomenting political instability for assuming power would prove to be disastrous to democracy as no party can claim monopoly over the central government.

The Supreme Court verdict that castigated the office of Governor for its cryptic and even dodgy role reopens the debate over the Constitutional relevance of gubernatorial offices. The Supreme Court has quashed all the decisions of the Governor to rule that the status prior to December 15 would be restored.

History is a witness to the rabid manner in which the office of the Constitutional representative has been reduced to an agent of centre, thanks to political avarice on the part of the democratic rulers.

Remember, this is a unanimous judgment of the Constitutional bench of the highest court of India. The court has also struck down the controversial Assembly proceedings culminating in the introduction of President’s Rule in the State, describing them as unsustainable.

The landmark verdict clearly establishes the Constitutional scheme of things in India wherein legislature is not supreme; Constitution alone is supreme and the apex court is the final arbitrator on the matters relating to the Constitution.

This is precisely the meaning of the exercise of judicial activism for the sake of democracy. The people of India salute the Supreme Court for correcting the constitutional sacrilege at the altar of political chessboard.