You don`t say!
Darius Nakhoonwala
Our editors have not covered themselves with very much glory in the Bihar assembly dissolution, Supreme Court judgment affair. Even though everyone knows that Buta Singh was was just the catspaw and that the real culprits are Sonia Gandhi (de facto) and Manmohan Singh (de jure) without whose instructions to the Cabinet the Bihar assembly would not have been dissolved. Yet everyone was asking for Buta`s head. One columnist, M J Akbar, even blamed the President but not Sonia even though he has a very poor opinion of her.
The Hindu edit was a marvel of obfuscation. For it, nothing that the UPA government does is too much. So it called the judgment "a rap on the knuckles for the United Progressive Alliance Government." Some rap. Then, like The Telegraph, it poured out a series of meaningless words. Finally, instead of blaming Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh, it was content to blame poor old Buta Singh. "It is clear that the ways of Governor Buta Singh, the clumsy manner in which the dissolution was effected, and the timing smacked of gross impropriety." But worse was to come. It sprang to Sonia`s defence. "Nevertheless, the objective situation in Bihar provided no alternative to dissolution: the fractured electoral verdict and the inflexible positions taken by the major parties had made government formation impossible under the normal rules of the game." I have never read such sanctimonious nonsense.
The Pioneer, on the other hand, as might be expected from a pro-BJP paper, went to the other extreme. "…the Supreme Court has exposed the hypocrisy of the United Progressive Alliance Government and the blatant misuse of gubernatorial office by its agent in Patna." It went on hysterically that "rather than insist that the Constitution is supreme, they sacrificed democracy at the altar of political expediency… The dissolution of Bihar Assembly is not an isolated incident… it is part of a pattern to subvert democracy to foist illegitimate Governments controlled either by the Congress or its allies on States..."
The Indian Express also focused on Buta Singh. "Since Buta Singh has both failed, and been seen to fail, the responsibilities of his high office, he must go. Then it took a half-hearted swipe at Sonia. " The Congress president may speak of the "need for probity in governance" for all time to come, but the words will mean little if they do not translate into meaningful action at crucial moments — as the present one is, without doubt.`
The Tribune called for Buta`s head as well, but made no mention of either the prime minister or the Congress president. Deccan Herald, too, did the same.
The Telegraph has called for a serious intellectual debate on the role of the governor. Why not have one on the role of real Vs make believe prime ministers as well?