The former Union Minister Yashwant Sinha on Sunday said that the political drama that unfolded in Karnataka, owing to the BJP’s stance, is likely to be repeated at the Centre in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections if a minority government is sworn in.
“It has already been rehearsed in the last session of the Parliament and it has now been rehearsed here in this city. When the government was formed, there were only two independents. Even if they joined the ruling party, they would not have secured majority.” He further said: “The only option for the ruling party then was to break and violate the anti-defection law and buy MLAs in retail. Without a sense of shame they were saying we will prove our majority.”
A government, which did not have a majority in Karnataka, claimed to have the mandate. So if a government does not get the mandate in the national election, it can still claim to have the mandate, he added.
“The Centre set a wrong precedent by not allowing a motion of no confidence to be moved during the last Parliament session by citing the disruption of the House by the AIADMK, which has a close relationship with the BJP,” Mr. Sinha, who has quit the BJP, said while speaking here at a seminar on ‘Threats to Democracy and Constitution’.
“If a minority government comes to power and the President allows 15 days to prove majority, then this disruption can be used to extend the time further by adjourning Parliament,” he explained, adding that in such a scenario the government will survive with the Parliament getting adjourned.
He said that there is further danger if a Speaker favourable to the dispensation takes over and can say that the vote of confidence has been passed in a din.
In such scenario, the Speaker can claim that there were more ‘ayes’ heard than ‘nays’ and hence the vote of confidence was passed, he added.
“What is our legal recourse if the Constitution is subverted? What happens inside the House cannot be challenged even in a court of law and government gets six more months. That is what they were trying to do here (in Karnataka),” he added.
Stating that institutions in the country were under threat, Mr. Sinha pointed out the unprecedented press conference held by the Supreme Court judges and dismissal of 20 legislators of the Aam Aadmi Party on the last day of service of the Chief Election Commissioner, which, however, was restored by the Delhi High Court.
On the statements on stable government required for development, he said, “If the stable government means dictatorship then we should never have a stable government.”
