The Two Big Bullies
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: December 17, 2013 -

With the deadlock over the formation of a new Government in Delhi lingering on after a hung verdict in the just concluded Assembly election, and no party ready or willing to assume power, Lieutenant Governor of the Union Territory Najeeb Jung has reportedly written to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs recommending imposition of President's rule in Delhi among other options.

That Delhi was heading for President’s rule must have not come as a surprise to political watchers from the twist and turn of the political development that has been witnessed since the results of the election were announced on December 8.

As per the convention and by virtue of being the single largest elected party with 31 seats, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is still short of four seats to get a clear majority in the 70-member House, was first invited and given the offer of staking claim to form the new government.

But the BJP's Chief Ministerial candidate Dr Harsh Vardhan categorically declined the offer saying that he could not prove majority on the floor of the House and suggested that AAP should form the Government and his party would support it.

Accordingly, the offer was extended to the second largest party, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) which managed to secure 28 seats in its electoral debut.

But AAP, which has always maintained that it would ally neither with Congress nor with BJP but would rather be happy to be in the Opposition, stuck to its stance and turned down the offer by telling the Lieutenant Governor that it was not in a position to form a government.

Giving a new twist to this deadlock, Congress, which has been not only ousted from power after a humiliating defeat winning just 8 seats, but also have no chance of staking claim for the government formation, came up with its old tricks and declared unconditional support to AAP in the government formation.

However, AAP has diligently rolled back the ball in the Congress’ court by asking to clear its stand on the nature of the so-called unconditional support along with handing over a list of 18 demands in a letter to the party President Sonia Gandhi, before it would consider the offer.

A similar letter was also shot off to BJP chief Rajnath Nath. While waiting for the reply (which has come rather promptly from the side of the Congress maintaining that out of the listed 18 demands, 16 were related to administration which AAP could deal itself without consulting anyone after the government formation while the remaining two demands, namely that of Jan Lokpal Bill and full statehood for Delhi, were outside the purview of the Delhi government), AAP has also sought 10 days’ time from Lt Governor to decide on government formation.

Now, what is very interesting to note here is that within minutes of AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal meeting the Lt Governor and laid down conditions before accepting support from anyone, both the Congress and the BJP have started attacking AAP for allegedly delaying the Government formation, trying to run away from the responsibility and not respecting the mandate given by the people.

If they were so concerned about public mandate, government formation and respect for democracy, why don’t the Congress and the BJP support to each other either from inside and outside and form the Government? This, of course, is a funny proposition, and we know that.

But the conduct of the two established mainstream political parties playing all possible tricks to pressurize the new political party surely reminds us of big boys trying to bully newly admitted student in a school.