The Karnataka assembly Speaker’s refusal to conduct a trust vote on Thursday in a last-ditch attempt to save H.D. Kumaraswamy’s government is deplorable. The brazen bid to forge an artificial majority in the assembly must be repudiated and condemned. The fractured assembly must be dissolved and fresh elections called for.
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Karnataka coalition government has no moral authority to rule it from day one. Here are my reasons:
1) In the old Mysore region, JDS and Congress were the main opponents. In the rest of the state, it was Congress vs BJP. Now, the two parties in the old Mysore region, who are political opponents came together to form an unnatural alliance to form the government.
2) The Chief Minister of the coalition came from a party which could win only 37 seats in an assembly of 224. Congress Party, which won 79 seats, which was more than twice the number of JDS was playing 2nd fiddle in the Government. This type of arrangement has very low viability and ownership of the state. This was just an arrangement for riding into power. Congress played its cards very poorly with no political wisdom at all and short-sited attitude.
3) When they fought the 2019 MP elections together they landed up winning just 2 seats out of 28, less than 10 % of the seats, clearly showing that the coalition is not working on the ground. Clearly, the Government is politically unviable, whatever be the numbers. Even if they had won 8-10 seats, they would have had the moral authority to continue.
4) It was just a double leveraged government. The Gowda family leveraged and owned the JDS and with 37 MLAs, it leveraged the 79 MLA’s of Congress and formed the Government, having very little ownership. It is similar to having a listed industrial company with 75% of its shares held by a listed holding company # 1. If 75% of shares of this holding company # 1, is held by another listed holding company #2, then the management completely owns the Industrial company by holding just about 42% of the holdings. That was the condition of the Karnataka government owned by using double leverage by the Gowda family.
It is strange that a ruling dispensation can defy the Supreme Court, the Governor,and the people of the state so brazenly and get away with it so easily. Other than the two parties concerned, NO ONE is in any doubt that HDK has lost his majority and that this government is simply stalling and pushing back the inevitable with some undue help from the Speaker. The question is ‘what is being done in these last few days by a government that is patently on its last legs’.
Any alternative that is forged would not be a case of immaculate conception, either. No pretence of constitutional morality by the two competing formations. We are returning to the political landscape of Smt Indira Gandhi. Also her brand of socialism. Another five year mandate that may not live up fully to its promise.