Right Decision
To resolve the matter, the Supreme Court had ruled in 1993 in the S R Bommai case that except under extraordinary circumstances, governments must be allowed to prove their strength on the floor of the House. This the BJP can claim to have done. But how valid is the claim? The procedure followed to prove the majority "� no notice, a voice vote, house not called to order etc "� was dubious in the extreme. It may even turn out that the temporary speaker was not legally empowered to move the motion and conduct a vote. It thus seems hard to argue that he didn't take advantage of the immediate situation "� which may have been created by the BJP itself in the first place. Had the proper procedure been followed, the results could have been different. The argument that as long as the majority is proved procedure is not important, is weak. True, the proof of the pudding is in its eating. But surely it is the pudding that must be eaten, not something else.
All things considered, therefore, the dismissal looks pretty much in order, especially since the House has not been dissolved but only kept in suspended animation and since Gujarat hasn't had a government to speak of for the last two months. In any case, the BJP can still try to form the new government. In fact, secretly, it might be quite pleased at the way things have gone because with the UP elections just round the corner, it has gained another quarter of a halo around its head: hard done by at the Centre in June and now this, it will tell the voter.
For the United Front government, which had sounded off loudly against the use of Article 356 in its Common Minimum Programme, the decision must come as an embarrassment. The chief ministers of the parties which comprise it, many of whom have been at the receiving end of Article 356 when the Congress was in power, may be wondering if it could be their turn next to face dissidence that leads to fiascos similar to the one in Gujarat. Should that happen, the UF government will be placed in a major dilemma. In fact, the Congress which is now reeling on the ropes under the onslaught of corruption charges, might see an opportunity for itself in the precedent that the UF government has created. It could, simply for the sake of negotiating strength, encourage dissidence in some of the states.