Guv defends action, says Constitutional breakdown in K'taka

Facing attacks for recommending imposition of President’s rule in Karnataka, Governor H R Bhardwaj on Tuesday defended his action saying it stemmed from “breakdown” of constitutional mechanism and rejected ruling BJP’s charge that he recommended dismissal of Yeddyurappa government despite its majority.

With questions raised over his action and BJP bringing him in the line of fire demanding his recall, Bhardwaj rejected as “baseless” the impression that he recommended President’s rule on the ground the government had lost majority in the wake of the Supreme Court quashing disqualification of 16 MLAs.

As BJP took the fight against the Governor to the Rashtrapathi Bhavan parading its MLAs, Bhardwaj said constitutional mechanism “broke down” due to tampering with the Assembly’s composition in an “unconstitutional manner” prior to the trust vote on October 12, 2010.

Eleven BJP rebel MLAs and five independents, who withdrew support to Yeddyurappa government, were disqualified by Speaker K G Bopaiah on October 10 last ahead of the trust vote faced by the Chief Minister.

“First of all, an impression is being created that despite the government enjoying, the support of the majority of the members of the Assembly, the Governor submitted the report for invoking the provisions of Article 356 (1) of the Constitution on the ground that the government lost the majority. This is completely baseless,” a Raj Bhavan communique said. The intervention of the Article 356 (1) of the Constitution was called for whenever there was a breakdown of constitutional mechanism, he said defending his May 15 special report to the Centre recommending dismissal of the BJP government.