Buta resigns as Bihar governor

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Bihar Governor Buta Singh resigned from his post today after the Supreme Court indicted him in a case related to dissolution of the Bihar Assembly in May 2005. With this, ended three days' of speculation on the question of his continuance in Raj Bhawan.

The Supreme Court had termed the dissolution of the Bihar Assembly unconstitutional and singled out Singh for criticism for having "misled" the Union council of ministers into an unconstitutional act. Singh said he was quitting his post over the Supreme Court's remarks.

Referring to the apex court's criticism that he had misled the Centre, Singh said he had sent two reports to the President on April 27 and May 21 on the basis of "strong proof" of horse-trading. On the other criticism that he had not entertained the claim of Janata Dal(U) to form a government, he put a counter question, "Who claimed that?".

"Injustice has been meted out to me," he said adding "out of sheer respect for the Supreme Court I have resigned." To a query whether he had been made a scapegoat, Singh dismissed it as a "politically-motivated question".

Singh's resignation has come as a big relief to the government, which had gone into a huddle when Singh refused to resign after the SC verdict. Singh's insistence that he would take the salute during the Republic Day parade in Patna meant that he was refusing to be made the scapegoat in the situation.

Home Minister Shivraj Patil met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi met more than once to hammer out a solution to the problem.

According to sources in the Congress, the government feared that the Bihar governor would drag in the names of Congress and RJD leaders as being party to the report he had sent to the President on the situation in Bihar.

This was considered the reason behind the government's efforts to buy time citing reasons that the SC judgement was voluminous and therefore more time was needed to read it.

Yet, the way the apex court judgment was worded, Singh's continuation seemed untenable. The court had not only termed the dissolution of the House unconstitutional but also berated the Union Cabinet for not verifying the governor's report on horse trading and accepting it as the "gospel truth."

The Bihar governor was upset over the fact that he was being singled out and was adamant that he be transferred and not removed from his post.

Such a solution was unacceptable to the government who feared Opposition fire during the Budget session. Their ally, the Left, also demanded Buta Singh's scalp.