Too many Red faces

The moon has set as I write, marking the formal end of Gurpurab, the birth anniversary of Guru Nanak. I hope Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seized the opportunity to visit the nearest Gurdwara. Not only does he need all the blessings he can get, it may be a long time till he again hears massed voices raised in chant rather than in rage.

The working week that begins on Monday is likely to be the stormiest Dr Manmohan Singh has faced since the United Progressive Alliance took office. Fate has conspired to place a clutch of issues in the spotlight just as Parliament begins its winter session. Bihar, I suspect, shall dominate proceedings, but India’s foreign policy vis-a-vis Iran, Iraq and the United States shall gather its fair share of thunder.

Let us begin with Bihar. Two judgements are expected next week, from the people of Bihar in the Vidhan Sabha elections, and from the Supreme Court on the constitutionality of those polls. Nobody shall blame Dr Manmohan Singh should the United Progressive Alliance perform poorly. The Congress has all but wiped its hands of the state, putting up just 51 candidates for a 243-strong Assembly. A party that held an overwhelming majority in the Bihar Vidhan Sabha as late as January 1990 now plays the part of Lalu Prasad Yadav’s poodle. (Win or lose, the Rashtriya Janata Dal boss will try to further undermine the Congress.) However, these political issues lie in Sonia Gandhi’s domain, not that of Dr Manmohan Singh.

He will find it harder to evade a punch from the Supreme Court. Their Lordships have already declared that the decision to dissolve the Bihar assembly earlier this year was “unconstitutional”. They had not however delivered the full judgement. (Nor overturned the act of dissolution as they might have done.) What happens if the Supreme Court chooses to spell out just who was responsible for the “unconstitutional” shenanigans in Patna and New Delhi?

Nothing in the Constitution says the Union cabinet must accept a recommendation from a governor. The prime minister and his colleagues were expected to use their own best judgement before taking so grave — and so undemocratic — a decision as dissolving an assembly before it met even once. Buta Singh’s enlightenment about horse-trading, the midnight summons to the cabinet over a weekend, that hasty fax to the president in distant Moscow — this is an affair that reeks of rotting fish.