DEMOCRACY'S BAD DAY

An interesting thing about India is that every politician here swears by democracy, but few really practise it. The current example is the action of Syed Sibtey Razi, the governor of Jharkand, who asked Shibu Soren, an ally of the government in power to form a government ignoring the NDA alliance which had already proved his majority status. His logic: he had stability factor in his mind, not the numbers. What a way to subvert democracy!

But surely it could not be the governor's personal decision. He's a known Congressman, a long-time faithful to Gandhi family, and has been awarded the Governorship just because of his closeness to Mrs. Sinia Gandhi. Obviously, he acted as his master prompted. The idea was to instal the pro-Congress government in a hurry, and thus allow it some time to buy some independent legistators so it could prove its majority in time on the floor of the assembly.

But the action has backfired now. The Bharatiya Janata Party, in an unbelievable show, had assembled all of its 41 supporting legistators in Delhi and paraded them before the President. It asked the President to take action against the governor, and instal the deserving party in power.

You perhaps know that the President did not take any action against the erring governor and just asked him to advance the date when Shibu Soren was to prove his majority on the floor.
MRINAL BOSE