Floor test, Constitution was subverted: Hansraj Bhardwaj, Karnataka Governor

NEW DELHI: The Centre's reluctance to follow up on his advice to impose President's rule in Karnataka has not dented Governor Hansraj Bhardwaj's enthusiasm for precipitating a crisis in the state.

On Tuesday evening the Karnataka Raj Bhawan issued a statement justifying his action. The development came a couple of hours after Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa paraded 122 MLAs before President Pratibha Patil.

"The intervention under Article 356 (1) of the Constitution of India is not limited to a situation of Government losing its majority in the assembly. The intervention is called for whenever there is breakdown of constitutional mechanism in the state,'' the governor said. The statement detailed the sequence of events leading up to the floor test in the Karnataka assembly in October, 2010, and cited excerpts from last Friday's Supreme Court order on the disqualification of 16 MLAs to conclude that there had indeed been a breakdown of the constitutional mechanism in Karnataka.

"The...actions of distorting the character of the Assembly was resorted to by the Chief Minister and the Speaker, as noted by the Supreme Court of India in its judgement, to enable the floor test to succeed. The sanctity of the floor test has been deliberately subverted thereby resulting in the breakdown of the constitutional mechanism,'' the statement said.