RANCHI/NEW DELHI, 11 March 2005 — Three Jharkhand legislators, including a minister, yesterday skipped the oath-taking ceremony in the state assembly, increasing Chief Minister Shibu Soren’s worries ahead of a trust vote.
Minister Kamlesh Kumar Singh of the Nationalist Congress Party, Aparna Sen Gupta of the Forward Bloc and Bhanu Pratap Dehati, backed by the same party, did not turn up even as the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) flew in its legislators from Jaipur for the oath-taking ceremony.
The NDA too got a jolt when Enos Ekka, one of the five independent legislators backing it, was served a notice by pro-tem speaker Pradeep Kumar Balmuchu.
Ekka, who got the notice for supporting the NDA, said: “I am an independent legislator. I am with the NDA and will remain with the NDA.” Two copies of the notice were served to Ekka. He was supposed to reply by 4 p.m. but refused to accept the notice.
Meanwhile, Dehati and Singh are learned to be in Chhattisgarh, a state ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Their absence from today’s trust vote to indirectly help the NDA is not being ruled out. The NDA has claimed the support of 41 legislators in the 81-member assembly.
The NDA legislators, including the independents, arrived here around 12 noon for oath-taking and headed to a luxury hotel. Commandos of the Jharkhand Armed Force accompanied them.
They later came to the assembly as a crowd waited outside in anticipation. “The Shibu Soren government would be defeated,” BJP state President Raghubar Das said.
The Supreme Court had Wednesday advanced Soren’s trust vote from March 15. The court had also pulled up Governor Syed Sibtey Razi for committing a “fraud” on the constitution by appointing Soren as chief minister.
Paradoxically, the Supreme Court’s attempt to give a constitutionally legitimate and politically correct turn to Jharkhand government formation by its directive has raised questions over constitutional legitimacy of the order itself. Both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha witnessed uproarious scenes as the Left party members raised strong objection to the apex court’s directive.
While Basudeb Acharia (CPI-M) raised the issue in the Lok Sabha, his party colleague Nilotpal Basu took it up in the Rajya Sabha. Protest voiced by BJP members led to noisy exchanges in both the Houses.
In the Lok Sabha, Speaker Somnath Chatterjee said: “I have called a meeting of leaders of parties where I will make my views. I have not allowed anything now.” This meeting was held yesterday evening following which the speaker stated that with the powers “clearly defined” in the constitution, the judiciary does not have the authority to interfere in the speaker’s domain. Under section 143 of the constitution, the president shall be consulted on the issue, the speaker said.
Earlier, questioning the legality of the Supreme Court’s order, advancing the floor test in Jharkhand assembly and restraining nomination of the Anglo-Indian member of the House, CPI leader Gurudas Dasgupta told reporters: “While we do not hold brief for what has been done by the governor, the speaker or others in Jharkhand, the apex court has no business to dictate to the legislature in this fashion.”
Calling for strict observance of the “rules of the game” by all wings of the government — the legislative, executive and judiciary — Dasgupta said that they had every reason to differ with the apex court’s decision as the question pertained to constitutional legality.
The leader of opposition, L.K. Advani defended the Supreme Court verdict on Jharkhand. Accusing the Congress and Left block parties of opposing democracy, Advani called for a country-wide campaign on it. While addressing the weekly BJP parliamentary party meeting, Advani also blamed the Congress for having “murdered democracy” whenever the judiciary has sought to defend it.
