by a Thinker, Sailor, Blogger, Irreverent Guy from Madras

Recall Governor, Shut the Generals up and Send away the Planner


The present administration of India is of late known for its faux-pas in much about everything it does.  In my opinion, it is due to to people in positions of authority, shooting their mouths off or deciding in an intemperate manner.

Recall the Governor
First it is the Governor versus the Chief Minister fracas in the state of Karnataka.  The Governor has suddenly woken up to the fact that disqualification of MLA’s by the speaker of the Karnataka Assembly has been termed ‘not per rules’ and overturned by the Supreme Court of India.

Personally, (then and now), the original disqualification was ultra vires of the Constitution and the Supreme Court has ruled it so.

But does that give the Governor to insist that the state government existing since the act doesn’t have legitimacy?  In matters of constitutional propriety, does anyone have the authority to impose conditions or rulings with retrospective effect? Effectively neutralising all actions of a Government in power during the ‘ultra vires’ period?

I am not sure.  If the Governor, Mr. H.R. Bharadwaj was so sure that the original act by the speaker was ultra vires, he should have suspended the state Assembly then, not now. 

A Government of the ‘day’ has to stand and fall on the ‘floor of the house’ - whether in Parliament or in state Assemblies.  It seems the Governor is not clear about his powers, prerogatives or his constitutional authority - or rather when to impose them and when to back off.

So recall the Governor.

Shut the Generals up
Almost all of India is in clamour on the bravado of the ISI chief on the floor of Pakistan parliament that ‘targets in India have been identified and attacks (on them) rehearsed, for a retaliatory action, if ever India ventures an Abbottabad like raid’.

Whatever we in India may or may not like, ‘(Going to) War is too serious to be left to Generals’.  BTW, that statement is not my contention, by Le Tigre’s and oft repeated and proved over the last hundred years.

Not to be unpatriotic, but if Shuja Pasha’s contention was alarming to us Indians, then the contention of the our own Army and Air Force Chiefs that India is capable of carrying out Abbottabad like strikes in Pakistan, should have been equally terrifying to Pakistan.

It was absolutely galling to me, to see such statements by people who should know better.  More than anything, I hold the Defence Minister for not inviting them to tea and giving them a severe talking to.  For, in a democratic setup,
  • it is not for the Generals to tell the civilian leadership what can or should be done.
  • it is for the Generals to do what has been decided by the civilian leadership.
For all of those who read this and disagree and hold that because the Americans have done it, we should ape them -
Let us also do what the US did when one of their top Generals tried to tell the administration what it should do - it sacked General Stanley McChrystal.  Mind you the Americans sacked one of their top Generals in the midst of the war, not a General who was trying to start one (a war).

So, tell the Generals to shut up.

Send away the Planner
Of all the best news over the week, I rejoiced most at the news that the IMF chief has been arrested on rape charges.  It is the answer to the prayers of all the multitude of Indians who are slogging in poverty.  Not that they, or any Indian, including a loose-nut like me, would ever wish misery on anyone, leave alone Dominique-Strauss-Khan, but being believers in Karma, can only marvel at the fortuitous turn of circumstances.

For it gives us, the multitudes who suffer, the hope that we can see the last of our persecutor Montek Singh Ahluwalia, whom the other day someone commented to me, was the economic Rasputin of India - to see him off as the next IMF Chief.

On behalf of all suffering multitudes, I personally bless him that, ‘May he live long, have no similar controversies (like Strauss-Khan), be good to his IMF masters and on completing his agenda at IMF, go on to better prospects, far away from my Motherland’.

So, bless him away.

Rasputin-2_Montek
Amen
Here is the animated GIF version
:;-)
Rasputin_2_Montek

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