The aborted floor test

THE floor test in Karnataka Assembly that finally did not take place would have been the usual raucous affair of the kind witnessed in many legislatures in the past but for the Supreme Court. The political class had embarked on its usual tricks and chicanery the moment the Assembly results threw up a hung House. The Congress did breach the norms of decency and decorum by offering the Chief Ministership to the party with the least number of members but the BJP too seemed to have forgotten its promise to clean the swamp by appearing to be desperate to poach legislators from the other side. The Congress and the JD (S) also may not have been loath from a similar approach if it were not for the BJP’s large legislator strength and the lure for the MLAs to side with a party that has access to spoils of office at the Centre as well.

It fell on the Supreme Court to establish the most important objective of ensuring transparency in the floor test. In the past, compliant Speakers and thuggish legislators have combined to thrust a voice vote victory on the incumbent party. That was not to be after the apex court directed live feed of the proceedings, that may have been the catalyst in the BJP wisely refraining from forcing the issue in the House. For a party that positions itself as an outsider, the live telecast of the proceedings and the inevitable tumult would have blotted its claim about clean politics, especially after it jettisoned moral goalposts in its grab for power in Goa, Manipur and Bihar.

However, the danger of further damage to the already-fragile democratic institutions is not yet over. And the Supreme Court will not be able to do much about non-parliamentary inducements to legislators or the inevitable squabbling that will play out between the JD (S) and the Congress. With the courts as an ally, it is time for the intermediate groups between the state and the society to create an environment for reforms in the body politic to restore public hope and trust in political institutions.