HOT language erupts from the cool foothills of the Himalayas: the former chief minister of Uttarakhand says Narendra Modi’s national government is “murdering democracy”. Until March 27th Harish Rawat ran the wobbly government in his state, where the Congress party enjoyed a narrow majority. But he found himself shot from office in short order after nine of his comrades in parliament rebelled, siding with the Uttarakhand branch of Mr Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP, pictured) on March 18th. Under Article 356 of Part 18 of the Indian constitution, the same part that provided Indira Gandhi with her excuse for imposing the Emergency of 1975 which briefly turned India into a dictatorship, “president’s rule” was declared over Uttarakhand. Unlike most murder victims, Mr Rawat has been fighting his fate in court. And on April 4th his comrades in Congress called a rally to protest the BJP’s “conspiracy to dislodge” elected governments from a series of states.
President’s rule over India’s federal states has been declared more than 100 times since the country became independent in 1947. It was used excessively by Indira Gandhi...Continue reading
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