President continues his legal deliberations
George Iype in New Delhi
Even as the Opposition parties stepped up their campaign against the dismissal of the Rabri Devi government on Wednesday,
President K R Narayanan met constitutional and legal experts to decide whether to impose Central rule or not in Bihar.
The President, who is known to be conservative in interpreting the Constitution, met delegations of the Left parties, Rashtriya
Loktantrik Morcha and Janata Dal led by Mulayam Singh Yadav and Laloo Prasad Yadav, Harkishen Singh Surjeet and A B
Bardhan and Inder Kumar Gujral respectively.
The Opposition leaders argued that the Vajpayee government's recommendation to sack the Rabri government was on
''frivolous grounds'' and that many allies of the BJP were themselves against the use of Article 356.
Narayanan also consulted noted constitutional experts -- Fali S Nariman, K Parasaran, Attorney General Soli Sorabjee and Ashok
Desai -- during the day in an effort to study whether dismissing the Bihar government on the law and order situation has
any legal validity and constitutional precedents.
Since legal opinion holds that imposing President's rule in a state is exercising "an emergency power," whether the Bihar
situation warrants such a drastic step is the moot point that Narayanan is said to be contemplating.
According to official sources, the President is particularly examining that part of the Vajpayee Cabinet recommendation which
states that the Bihar assembly should be kept in suspended animation.
"The President is keen to know whether the Cabinet decision to keep the Bihar assembly in suspended animation is a political
trick to topple the Rabri government without going to the polls," an official at Rashtrapati Bhavan told Rediff On The NeT.
"By keeping the state assembly in suspended animation, the BJP could engineer defections and splits," he said.
"State governments have been dismissed 89 times on various grounds since Independence. The President wants to be assured that
the law and order situation in Bihar is so bad that it requires the suspension of democracy there," the official added.
Opposition leaders have asked the President to follow his own judgement on Uttar Pradesh last year. In October 1997,
Narayanan had sent back the recommendation of the United Front government to impose President's rule in UP.
The then prime minister Inder Kumar Gujral accepted the President's decision. Similarly, the Opposition parties want
Narayanan to return the Cabinet recommendation on Bihar to the Vajpayee government.
But officials associated with the President's legal consultations pointed out that Narayanan does not want to compare the
UP situation with the present Bihar crisis. "In UP, it was essentially a constitutional crisis warranting the urgent intervention of
the President. In Bihar, it is the law and order situation that is in the picture," an official said.
On the other hand, if the President decides to return the recommendation to the Union cabinet, the Vajpayee government, in
all probability, will send it back to him once again. The President, then, will be duty-bound to issue a proclamation ordering
central rule in Bihar.
But officials made it clear that if the President finally imposes central rule in Bihar, it will be "solely based on the Bihar
governor's report on the deteriorating law and order situation in the state."
"The President does not want to expose his office to charges of political complicity and injudicious action. Therefore,
he will issue an elaborate reasoning on his judgement in Bihar," the official stated.
Many believe the unanimity of Opposition opinion and legal views might force the President to send back the
recommendation to the Union Cabinet.
But if Narayanan okays the Rabri Devi government's dismissal, central rule in Bihar could result in political upheavals as a united
Opposition is gearing up to demand similar action in the BJP-ruled states like UP, Maharashtra, and Delhi.
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