The Bangalore Metro Reporter
THE ILLEGAL AUTHORITY
DY. CM POST IS IMMORAL, ILLEGAL AND UNETHICAL
The constitution provides Prime Minister and Council of Ministers in the central government and Chief Minister and the council of Ministers at the state level. There is no provision for Deputy Prime Minister or Deputy Chief Minister in the constitution. But still, the Dy. CM system has come to stay. The Dy. CM post at the state level has become a reality despite there being no sanction of law to the post. And now, Karnataka has created history in having two Dy. CMs and one may not be surprised if some more are made Dy. CMs....
It all started when Indira Gandhi designated the then Finance Minister Morarji Desai as the Deputy Prime Minister. When asked why she made him Dy. PM, Mrs. Gandhi laughed at the question and stated that there is no provision for the Dy. PM post but she made him Dy. PM just to satisfy his ego. She clarified that Dy. PM Post does not enjoy any more or special powers than a Minister! Even in oath taking, as there is no constitutional provision, the person who is to take the oath whether as Dy. PM or a Dy. CM, has to take the same as a Minister.
In 1977 when Morarji Desai became the PM, he had two Dy. PMs. L.K.Advani also became the Dy. PM under AB Vajpayee, during the NDA regime. Since then the UPA government has not allowed the Dy. PM post. But at the state level, the Dy. CM post has become a sort of prestige and also a factor in power sharing among the coalition parties.
The Dy. CM post has reached to a ridiculous level in recent years. The Punjab CM appointed his son as the Dy. CM. In Tamil Nadu, the ex Chief Minister Karunanidhi had appointed his son Stalin as the Dy. CM. This precedent is growing by every passing year. In our state we have two Dy. CMs catering to different major castes. The CM and the two Dy. CMs represent three major communities in the state.
It was during Veerappa Moily regime, the Dy. CM post was first created for S.M.Krishna. The creation of the Dy. CM post resulted in creation of another power centre.
In 1994 when HD Deve Gowda became the CM, his bête noire R.K.Hegde forced him to appoint JH Patel as the Dy. CM. When Deve Gowda became the Prime Minister in 1996, JH Patel became the CM and Deve Gowda played his cards to make Siddaramaiah, the Dy. CM.
In 1999, SM Krishna became the CM with Mallikarjuna Kharge, a strong contender for Deputy Post. But, Krishna, who had experienced the Dy. CM post and its advantages to develop a parallel power centre, firmly rejected it.
In 2004 elections, Congress formed a coalition government with JD(S) with CM of Congress and deputy Siddramaiah of JD(S). When Siddaramaiah defected to the Congress, he was removed from JD(S)LP leadership and Dy. CM post by the JD(S) and MP Prakash was replaced as the Dy. CM.
Then, HD Kumaraswamy took revenge on Congress by withdrawing the support to Dharam Singh and later formed a coalition with BJP. The power sharing formula between JD(S) and BJP was peculiar. The remaining period of 40 months was to be divided into 20 months each in which, Kumaraswamy would become the CM and B.S.Yeddyurappa the Dy. CM for the first 20 months. The heavy portfolios were to be equally distributed and at the end of the 20 months, Yedurappa was to become CM, Dy. CM would be from JD(S) and the portfolios of the cabinet ministers will be swapped. Everybody knows the history which resulted in BJP coming to power on its own in 2008 and B.S.Yeddyurappa becoming the CM.
Yedurappa after becoming CM simply refused to make anybody as the Dy. CM. He ruled (ruined, of course) the state for over three years and had to go because of the scams and controversies. He however ensured that Sadananda Gowda succeeded him as the CM besides avoiding a Dy. CM under Sadananda.
In fact, the BJP has a declared policy of not having a Dy. CM post in states ruled by the party. This policy has avoided the growth of a parallel power centre and leadership. Only in cases where the government is in alliance with other parties, the BJP relaxes its stand and allows Dy. CM post for its party or the coalition partner depending upon the strength of the parties. But it has not allowed the Dy. CM post in BJP ruled states at any cost.
However, BJP has relaxed its policy in case of Karnataka where it is the ruling party. More shockingly, it has allowed the creation of two Dy. CM posts! There can be no better example for political hypocrisy and double standards than this. The BJP high command has betrayed its political bankruptcy in the episode by enforcing the CM Jagadish Shettar to have two Dy. CM posts.
Another political aspect is the caste factor in the Dy. CM drama. When Sadananda was asked to resign succumbing to Yedurappa’s blackmail, the Vokkaligas took to street raising danger of Vokkaliga votes slipping away from the BJP. To assuage the hurt feeling of the Vokkaligas, R.Ashoka was made the Dy. CM. The Chief Minister post went to Jagadish Shettar, a lingayath. In fact, the BJP national President Nitin Gadkari publicly admitted that Jagadish Shettar was made the CM only because he is a lingayath leader! And what about the state’s third largest populated community, Kuruba? For them, K.S.Eswarappa, a Kuruba leader was made the Dy. CM.
The entire episode not only violates the secular base of the constitution but is also politically unethical and immoral. Interestingly, both R.Ashoka and K.S.Eswarappa took oath as Deputy Chief Minister which is a non existing post in the constitution. Strictly speaking, these two Dy. CMs cannot participate in the cabinet meetings if the law of the land is applied. One wonders how the Governor allowed them to take oath as Dy. CMs when there are no such posts.
In conclusion, the two Dy. CM posts - given to two major communities is not only immoral, unethical but illegal also. It is time some conscious people get this issue adjudicated in the High Court or the Supreme Court.
That is all.
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