Lessons from Arunachal

Upholding democracy and maintaining constitutional propriety are the lessons the BJP has to learn from the Arunachal and Uttarakhand episodes (

>Editorial , July 18). Constitutionally sanctioned principles of a separation of powers and federalism are not the repository of the Central government to be tinkered with. Thanks to the Supreme Court’s intervention, the BJP government will now think twice about meddling in States. Opaque and politically-motivated gubernatorial appointments must be checked. The Governor must realise that he or she is not an elected head.

Gaurav Singhal,

Rewari, Haryana

Hopefully, the BJP will now desist from using unconstitutional means to capture power in States where it is not in power in. Otherwise, what is the difference between the BJP government and earlier governments? The Supreme Court judgment has also to be seen in the context of decisions taken by the Cabinet in Arunachal Pradesh these past few months. When the Supreme Court has made it clear that the formation of this government was unconstitutional, there also needs to be clarity on the legal validity of decisions made by such a government.

B.C. Unnikrishnan Nair,

Alappuzha, Kerala

The anti-defection law, as it stands now, appears to be ineffective in small States. In a State, say, with a total strength of 60 legislators, it is very easy to engineer defections and destabilise a government. The Central government “utilising” the Governor and Speaker to selectively disqualify a few numbers of the defectors so that the remainder do not have the advantage of a one-third majority appears to have become another acceptable political move. The judiciary is yet to pronounce its verdict on such political skulduggery.

Defections of any kind should attract disqualification. Parties should announce their chief ministerial candidate at the time of election and those getting the party ticket should accept him as a leader for the full term of the Assembly. Elected legislators who want to leave a party for any reason should resign and contest again on their own steam. If this is done, Chief Ministers of small States can run a full term without defectors breathing down their necks.

M.K.B. Nambiar,

Mahe