NEW DELHI, 5 March 2005 — Pandemonium broke out in India’s Parliament for a third day yesterday following the controversial appointment of a government allied to the ruling national Congress party in the tiny eastern state of Jharkhand.
Opposition MPs bellowed for the dismissal of the state’s governor after he asked Congress party allies to form a government following an election in which they won fewer seats than the Hindu nationalists and their partners.
Critics charge the uproar has tarnished the image of Congress, India’s oldest political party, which pledged clean rule when it ousted the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at national elections last May. BJP leader Venkaiah Naidu said democracy was being “murdered” in Jharkhand by the Congress party, led by Italian-born Sonia Gandhi.
State elections in Jharkhand last month resulted in a hung assembly. Despite the result, Congress-allied Governor Syed Sibte Razi went ahead and swore in a Congress ally as chief minister on Wednesday. Results from the poll showed new Chief Minister Shibu Soren and his Congress allies had won 33 seats compared to 36 seats for the BJP and its partners. Both coalitions are claiming the support of 42 legislators in the 81-member house.
In the national Parliament, BJP leaders jumped to their feet yesterday and demanded that New Delhi sack Razi. The disarray forced lower house Speaker Somnath Chatterjee to adjourn proceedings early, citing a “disorderly situation.” Similar scenes erupted in the upper house where proceedings also ended abruptly. Parliament will resume next Wednesday. Razi, summoned by President Abdul Kalam to New Delhi on Tuesday to explain his actions, said he would ask the new government in Jharkand to prove its majority “at the earliest,” the Press Trust of India reported. The date would be announced in Ranchi, capital of Jharkhand, in “two or three days” after discussions with various parties, Razi told reporters after meeting the president for 30 minutes. The row has been making headlines in national newspapers and become a major embarrassment for Congress, which appeared keen to distance itself from the governor’s decision to ask Soren to form the government.
Newspapers quoted unnamed sources as saying Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who enjoys a clean reputation, had no prior knowledge of the governor’s decision.
Meanwhile, the political drama over government formation in Goa further heated up yesterday with the center recommending imposition of president’s rule on the state.
Earlier in the day in Goa’s capital Panaji, the Pratapsinh Rane government managed to confirm its “majority” only after the pro-term Speaker Fransisco Sardinha cast the deciding vote in its favor.
The speaker had earlier restrained UGDP member Mathani Saldanha from voting on the basis of a disqualification petition against him filed by Congress member Jitendra Deshprabhu.
In order to avoid the Goa crisis assuming greater complications, the Cabinet decided yesterday to recommend imposition of president’s rule on the state. Saying that the center was not happy with the day’s developments in Goa Assembly, Home Minister Shivraj Patil said that the center had decided to take suo-motu action without waiting for the governor’s report.
