The Supreme Court's indictment of the Bihar Governor

In one of my earlier posts I had talked about how the Governor of Bihar, Buta Singh, played a role in ushering in Nitish as the new CM. The SC said that Buta subverted the Constitution by recommending the dissolution of the Bihar Assembly while the ground reality still offered the chance of a new state government.
In its criticism of the Union Government, the Supreme Court said that they should have verified the Governor's report before doing what he had recommended. Guilty as he is, Buta is defiant as ever, declaring he will still take the salute during the Republic Day parade on Jan 26.

However, the onus of the blame should go on the Congress led Union Government, which once again showed its inability to be fair and just as far as politics go. They were hand in glove in the Governor's effort to not let the JD(U) form the government, because it didnt want to ally with Lalu's RJD, an important member of the UPA.

The Daily Pioneer is a good English newspaper, and this report gives a fairly good critique of what has transpired and what is to come.

Buta 'sentenced', Cabinet also guilty

The nation on Tuesday witnessed the sorry spectacle of a defiant Buta Singh cocking a snook at the Supreme Court's strong indictment and the Centre unable to nudge him out of office despite the Governor being pronounced guilty of subversion of Constitution for recommending the dissolution of the Bihar Assembly in May last year.

The moral authority of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to sack the Governor lay in tatters as the judgement said that the Union Council of Ministers should have verified Buta Singh's report before accepting it as gospel truth.

Making a subtle reference to the role of Rashtrapati Bhavan, the majority 3:2 Bench judgement stated that the documents which were placed before the President were not sufficient to justify dissolution of the House.

"I've no intention to resign," Mr Buta Singh said in his first reaction after the Supreme Court held that he misled the Centre in recommending the dissolution of the State Assembly.

A five-judge Constitution Bench, by a majority judgment of 3:2, said the full motive of the Governor was to prevent JD (U) from forming the government in the State. The court held that the Governor mislead the Union Council of Ministers by sending a report containing unascertained facts.

The defiance of the Governor must have shocked even his political masters at the Centre. But they were shackled by the awareness that Buta Singh knew too much about the Centre's dubious role in the dissolution of the Assembly, hence efforts were on to persuade him, rather than force him to step down.

However, the Congress said the Supreme Court while indicting Bihar Governor Buta Singh had not found any fault with the Council of Ministers. There is no indictment of the Union Council of Ministers by the Supreme Court in the verdict, Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said.

The judgement triggered a political upheaval with the Opposition gunning for the Prime Minister's head and political parties joining afresh the debate on the need for apolitical appointees as Governors.

While the court minced no words in criticising the Governor's role, its comment on the Centre's failure to verify his report prompted a hurried damage-control exercise by the Congress, which found little support from its allies.

The Left parties were quick to demand Mr Buta Singh's recall while even Railway Minister Lalu Prasad, who was instrumental in dissolution of the House, refused to bail out the Centre and the Governor. Only LJP chief and Union Minister Ramvilas Paswan defended the Governor.