From horse to high court, BJP’s strategy in Uttarakhand faltering

After rounds of sparring, HC throws out President’s Rule in Uttarakhand, sullying BJP’s’s image dented by Shaktiman’s death.

Updated on: Apr 22, 2016, 13:24:44 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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From horse to high court, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) strategy in the hill state of Uttarakhand appears to have fallen off the cliff.

Harish Rawat addresses media in Dehradun after the Uttarakhand high court quashed the imposition of President's Rule in the state. (PTI Photo)

On March 14, BJP organised its biggest protest against Harish Rawat government in Dehradun but all the good work was in vain as the party legislator Ganesh Joshi allegedly assaulted the police horse Shaktiman, critically injuring him.

Shaktiman returned to haunt BJP with his death on Wednesday as Union women and child development minister Maneka Gandhi demanded that Joshi should be booked for killing a police officer on duty. Even as the BJP was battling with her stinging remarks, the Uttarakhand high court served a blow on Thursday by revoking the President’s rule — dashing any hope of the party to form the government in the state in near future.

Activists pay tribute to the police horse 'Shaktiman' who died after being injured during a BJP rally in Uttarakhand, in New Delhi. (AFP Photo)

The series of meeting in Delhi in the last two days indicated keenness on BJP’s part to stake claim to form the government thinking a rule of less than a year (election slated by February 2017) can turn tables in its favour.

Read | HC quashes Prez Rule in Uttarakhand, Centre to appeal order in SC today

But, the BJP failed to anticipate that the Centre’s arguments in favour of the President’s rule before the division bench headed by Chief Justice KM Joseph will not hold much ground.

The Centre failed to present any material evidence before the court on how the constitutional machinery in the state had failed.

Governor KK Paul had submitted eight reports to the home ministry on the political situation in the state after March 18, when nine rebel Congress legislators joined hands with the BJP to demand “conscience vote” on the state budget.

In the pandemonium, speaker Govind Singh Kunjwal declared the budget was passed but the BJP and rebels questioned the speaker’s decision. Paul asked Rawat to prove majority on floor of the house on March 28.

The governor, in his reports, termed “political situation volatile” but never recommended imposition of the Central rule and that was apparently the ground taken by the court to revoke the President’s rule.

The court on Thursday was willing to provide a window by asking the Centre to give an undertaking that it will not revoke the President’s rule for a week. The Centre was unwilling probably because Parliament was resuming work from April 25.

Once the session starts, the Centre will have to seek approval for imposition of the President’s Rule from Parliament, including the Rajya Sabha where it is in minority. The opposition will leave no stone unturned to embarrass the government in the upper house by getting the Central proclamation defeated. The Centre’s hope is the Supreme Court where it will challenge the high court order in the next few days.

Read | BJP red-faced as Congress gets upper hand after Uttarakhand HC order

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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