Failures of State Machinery and its Impact on Governance

Abstract

Article 356 of the Indian Constitution providing imposition of President Rule in the state was once again in the news in last few months. First was Arunachal Pradesh and now it is Uttarakhand. In both the case the imposition of President Rule emanated from the political crises that arose due to defection of ruling party law makers. At present the legal battle is going in Supreme Court in the case of Arunachal Pradesh and in the high court in the case of Uttarakhand. In this light, let us understand what Article 356 is. How its uses are and how it has often been misused by the party at the Centre. The frequency of using Article 356 has been greatly reduced since mid-1990’s, despite and increasingly higher number of states being ruled by parties other than that in the central government. This happen due to two factors emboldening of regional parties and intervention by the Supreme Court. The mid 1990’s, witnessed fundamental changed in the nature of union government. Before this period, even when coalition government took power in Delhi, only a few national parties came to dominate the government. The mid 1990’s was marked by the rise of regional parties that lent and increasingly opportunistic and volatile character to Indian Polity. This meant that the national parties were always on the lookout for new regional allies, and hence were wary of using Article 356 against their governments. Besides having had direct political impact, the rise of regional parties also rejuvenated other institutional safeguards the courts and the President against arbitrary imposition of Article 356.