COMMENTARY- Uttar Pradesh Order behind Anarchy

Amaresh Mishra UTTAR PRADESH (UP) once more has given evidence of the 'Kola Khel' chat is fast becoming the sign post of national politics, A few days before Atal Behari Vajpayee won the vote of confidante, The speaker of the state assembly, while giving judgment on the BSP defection case, threw away even the minimum facade of legality. The case involved the status of 12 BSP MLAs who had voted for Kalyan Singh on October 21, 1997. Given the original BSP strength of 67 members, simple arithmetic ordained their falling under the purview of the anti-defection disqualification clause. On the trial of strength held on February 26.7 more MLAs defected but the total still fell short of the required 23 members which could have bailed the 12 out. The speaker sat on the case for more than five months and then delivered the verdict that to his knowledge the number of defectors on October 21 was 26! Seven members then went back to the party reducing the number to 19 on February 26! But since the issue was voting on October 21, the 19 detectors qualify for a separate party status!! If only 7 members went back to the parent party, how come 14 out of the 26 were sitting with the BSP till February 26, according to the list circulated by the assembly secretariat 7 Instead of ending here, the absurdities go on to incorporate the 'fact' of Mayawati not being authorised to issue the whip on October 21! As per the speaker, the whip was actually a threat for one defector informed him orally about its 'real' nature! More such bland and blatant concoctions are likely to come out when the 148 page judgment comes out in full. Kesri Nath Tripathi, its author, is an upper caste Allahabadi lawyer and this breed has a sub- breed which can justify an open murder as non-murder without batting an eyelid. He has pulled off the biggest fraud in the history of parliamentary democracy. With this one act, the BJP has shown that only those who live in glass houses can throw stones at others. The party has legitimised illegitimacy now it cannot complain when it gets back something more sensational in return.