It is a pity that Governors are taking partisan decisions (“ Arbitrary, capricious ”, May 18). It looks like the BJP wants to capture power by hook or by crook simply because it wants to fulfil its dream of a Congress-mukt Bharat. It is great that the Supreme Court has called for a floor test today. This is going to be challenging for B.S. Yeddyurappa.
Jayant Mukherjee,
Kolkata
It is unrealistic to expect the current crop of Governors, most of whom were politicians earlier, to take their constitutional obligations seriously. Different political parties have used Governors at different points in time to subvert democratic processes and serve their ends. Governors seem to be mere symbols, often used by the Centre to throw a spanner in the works of elected State governments. The question to debate is: Does India even need Governors?
Manohar Alembath,
Kannur
While some MLAs have been taken to Kerala to prevent horse-trading, others have been taken to Andhra Pradesh. After the Koovathur episode in Tamil Nadu, this seems to have become a practice. Are the people to believe that money is not exchanged in the process? After the elections are over, the Election Commission leaves the scene. When there is no Election Commission to monitor the parties, it is up to the political parties to respect democracy. Evidently, this is not happening today.
S. Chidambaresa Iyer,
Chennai
Whatever is happening is such a shame. Elected MLAs are herded like sheep, a national party has no faith even in its own elected representatives, there is open poaching of MLAs, shameless challenges are thrown after the polls are over, and, to top it all, the Governor acts brazenly partisan. Where is this country going?
R. Vaidyanathan,
Bengaluru
The Governor did not commit any constitutional impropriety by asking the single largest party to form the government but what he did fail to do was exercise his mind over the mechanics of how the BJP could achieve the numbers, given that the Congress and the JD(S) had already formed a post-poll alliance. Unlike in most other States, this was a three-way contest. The Governor should have asked Mr. Yeddyurappa how he was going to prove his majority. By failing to do so and by giving the BJP 15 days to prove its majority, the Governor’s decision is tantamount to giving the green signal for horse-trading. The Supreme Court has done well to call for a confidence vote today.
A.V. Narayanan,
Tiruchi
Unlike his previous articles that commanded respect and rereading, the latest one by Gopalkrishna Gandhi carries no substance (“Architecture of the mandate”, May 18, 2018). As Mr. Gandhi was a Governor himself, one expected him to share his acumen and wisdom on how to enforce the most workable formula in tricky cases such as the one facing Karnataka. Hopefully, solutions to a situation like this will be debated even more from now on.
Sivamani Vasudevan,
Chenna i
Gopalkrishna Gandhi’s article was brilliant. He covered all the aspects of the scenario in Karnataka — the arithmetic of it as well as the question of ethics. Hopefully, Indian democracy will emerge stronger today.
M. Jameel Ahmed,
Mysuru
