Subhas Chandra Pattanayak
Postmortem review of the 12th session of Orissas 13th Assembly is not beyond the Governors purview. He is the constitutional authority to prorogue the House, which conversely means, he is the constitutional authority not to prorogue the House. So he is the authority to restore the 12th session that his government has strangulated to a premature closure.
As discussed earlier, the Motion proposed by the Opposition seeking restriction of Hirakud water for agro-purpose was not against state interest and hence there was no reason for the state government to propose a parallel Motion on the same subject.
As leader of the House, it was imperative on part of the Chief Minister to ensure that the House runs smoothly on consensus. So, he should have asked his side to withdraw the parallel Motion proposed after the Opposition notice was submitted and encouraged the House to pay serious attention to the Motion of the Opposition, so that, if the treasury side had any different angle to insert, the Motion could have incorporated that by way of amendment and the political breed occupying the floor of the House on his side could have used the occasion to establish that to them, interest of the people of Orissa was more important than politics. In this case, in spite of accepting the Opposition motion, he could have been the real winner. But Naveen Patnaik has established that to him low-grade politics is more alluring than the niceties of democracy.
The recalcitrant attitude the government displayed by not withdrawing its Motion loaded crookedly on the Assembly to thwart the timely motion of the Opposition and the arbitrary termination of the session speaks volumes of irresponsibility that has engulfed Orissa administration under this regime.
The collapse of the Assembly should be reviewed by the Governor with specific attention to necessity of rescuing the State from irresponsibility terminated session had been subjected to.
We have earlier suggested, and we repeat our suggestion, that he should use his constitutional powers under Art.174(2)(b) to dissolve the House so that the present floor gives way to a new pack of politicians through a fresh election in a hope against hope that the future Assembly supposed to be so constituted will have responsible peoples as peoples representatives.
Nothing other than this, no review of proceedings, no restoration of the collapsed session, nothing other than a fresh election can help end the turmoil the 13th Assembly has made our people undergo.