00:00So what are the governor's options?
00:02The first option, obvious option, invite Vijay to form a government and prove his majority via a floor test.
00:08Remember, no other party has taken a claim so far.
00:12Option two is ask, as he's doing at the moment, Vijay to first submit the letters of support from the
00:18smaller parties and then he will be sworn in.
00:21Option three is invite a post-poll coalition of DMK and the AIDMK to prove their strength if, of course,
00:29the two parties are willing to have such a coalition.
00:32Option four, important, is to keep the House in suspended animation till government formation possible.
00:38The fifth option, President's Rule, leading perhaps to fresh polls.
00:43Joining me now is Dr. Abhishek Manu Singhvil, Senior Congress MP, Eminent Jurist is joining me.
00:50I appreciate your joining us, Dr. Singhvi.
00:52Which of these options?
00:53The governor is saying letters of support.
00:56He is following what K.R. Narayanan did between 97 and 2000.
01:00Asked Atal B.A.R.I. Vajpayee to prove, to show him letters of support before he swore him as
01:09the Prime Minister at the time.
01:11This is the Narayanan test.
01:15Rajdeep, I hope you will give me a few minutes because your viewers need to know the truth.
01:19He has no option.
01:20Accept the first.
01:22Invite the single largest party.
01:25It is deplorable and I have no hesitation to mince my words.
01:29Condemnable and unprecedented that a person who is foreshort is not invited with no other party in Tamil Nadu even
01:38sticking a claim.
01:39Point one.
01:40Point two.
01:42Point two.
02:10Vajpayee Vala with 10 seats short.
02:12He had 104 out of 224 and Faddamis had 122 out of 288.
02:16So is this largest, this kindness reserved only for those who are BJP chief ministers to be?
02:22And let me tell you the Vajpayee example you gave.
02:24If there is no such thing as a Narayanan test.
02:27Mr. Vajpayee Vajpayee, the gentleman that he was, staked a claim when he was 111 seats short because he was
02:35only the single largest.
02:36There was nobody else.
02:38He was given and he gracefully resigned after 13 days.
02:41Now remember, every governor has the inbuilt safeguard that when he calls upon the single largest, he will give him
02:4710 to 15 days to show the majority.
02:50That majority has to be shown not on the floor of the governor's house.
02:54It has to be shown on the floor test of the house.
02:56That is the assembly.
02:58And the governor is only one option.
03:00He can always say, you are claiming Mr. Vijay.
03:02Mr. Vijay is not hiding the fact.
03:03He is not saying I have 117.
03:05You are claiming 113.
03:06Show me the signature.
03:08Show me the MLA's if you want.
03:10Once he has 113, I repeat 113, which is not the majority mark.
03:14He must allow Mr. Vijay to show his majority within a reasonable time in 10, 12, 15 days on the
03:20floor of the house.
03:21No, but you are saying…
03:22This has happened in…
03:23No, no, I know it has happened as you said.
03:26You have given two examples.
03:27Fatnavis is an example in Maharashtra.
03:29You have given the example also in Karnataka of Yedirappa.
03:33But Dr. Singhvi, the Narayanan…
03:36You are saying there is nothing like a Narayanan test.
03:38The fact is in 1998, Mr. Narayanan told Atal Bihari Vajpayee,
03:43After what had happened in 1996, this time please provide me letters of support before I invite you.
03:49So therefore, there are precedents on both sides.
03:52There are precedents where governors have said we will invite single largest party.
03:57Others have waited to see if a pre-poll alliance can come and stake a claim.
04:01See, the Sarkaria Commission, four decades ago, put a simple hierarchy.
04:08Obviously, if a pre-poll alliance is there, this is the number one.
04:13Sarkaria Commission says number one in hierarchy.
04:16If there is no pre-poll alliance, he says single largest is number two.
04:20There is no pre-poll alliance other than the existing ones in Tamil Nadu.
04:24He then says that a post-poll alliance will be asked after the single largest.
04:30That's number three.
04:32Now, what is this whole game the governor is playing about minority government?
04:37This government will be a minority of four people till they approve their flow test.
04:41Do you know that Narsimha Rao, a Congress Prime Minister, ruled for five years with 25 short.
04:47He was never a majority government.
04:49Do you know that Mr. Vajpayee gave you the example?
04:52And look at the law.
04:55Rameshwar is a Bihar judgment, a constitution made between five judges.
05:00Those who are interested in things that I am fibbing or lying or speaking like a congressman may read Paras
05:0465.
05:06It says that the single largest must be invited and that only the floor test will determine whether that single
05:15largest survives.
05:17Bommai, which is nine judges in 1994, says the floor test is the best way.
05:23Now, I don't understand this self-imposed dilemma of the government, of the governor.
05:28What is he worried about?
05:29If he doesn't prove his majority, he'll be out.
05:31No, no, the floor test argument is well taken that majority has to be proved on the floor of the
05:37house,
05:38not in the Raj Bhavan or the Lok Bhavan as it is called.
05:41But maybe the governor believes that this is a fluid situation and therefore rather than risk,
05:47just a minute, rather than risk asking Vijay to prove his majority on the floor of the house,
05:53he would like to wait to see whether the AIDMK or DMK also approach him in the next couple of
05:59days
05:59and stake a claim to form a government.
06:00Are you telling me that that can only happen post facto, after Vijay is given his chance?
06:06As the single largest, he gets shot number one.
06:09Obviously and only.
06:10Obviously and only.
06:11No, no, because in Goa, for example, sir, in Goa, for example, in 2017,
06:16the Congress had the largest number of MLAs.
06:20In the meantime, before the Congress could even go and stake its claim,
06:24the BJP went and tied up with the independents and formed the government.
06:27Correct, correct.
06:28So, therefore, according to Sarkaria, even then the single largest must be asked, but forget that.
06:33If there was a post-pole alliance standing in front of the governor saying,
06:39we have 120, 125, 135, I can understand that he has a dilemma.
06:45Where is that post-pole alliance?
06:47The governor's job is not to give a charter on the instructions of his nominator,
06:53the BJP central government, to create a statement for 15 days
06:56to invite people to have post-pole alliances.
06:59No, you're making a very similar, Dr. Singh,
07:02now you're making a serious political argument.
07:04You are claiming the governor is acting under the center's instructions
07:08to delay the swearing-in of Vijay.
07:10100%, 100%, 100%.
07:11I'll tell you why.
07:13Please tell me, the governor has nobody's taking a claim.
07:16He doesn't even have a post-pole alliance, which is a lower hierarchy.
07:20He will not be allowed to wait for 15 days saying,
07:23look, this field I've kept open for you.
07:25You, Mr. DMK, you, Mr. AIDMK, join together.
07:28You, Mr. BJP, and you, Mr. AIDMK, join together.
07:32And what are we, let's smell the coffee, Rajdeep.
07:34The AIDMK is a known open secret,
07:37is nothing but a proxy funded and managed by the BJP.
07:40The BJP wants to create uncertainty.
07:43They want to create a vacuum.
07:44They want the option of even having a suspended animation, your option four.
07:48And God forbid, after a mandate in an election,
07:52which has happened hardly a few days ago,
07:54you may even have residence rule.
07:57This is the character today of governorship
08:00without any regard to constitutional spirit, legacy, or heritage
08:04on governors who do not pass bills for two years.
08:08You had that example after 2014 in more than four states.
08:11Of governors who don't give address to the assembly
08:13when the assembly meets in the first time.
08:15Of anti-federal governors.
08:17So, you have it.
08:18I am not speaking out of the air.
08:20You have had all these examples after 2014 only.
08:22When did you have this example prior to 2014?
08:24Tell me.
08:26Sir, sir, sir, sir.
08:27Now you are going to get into trouble.
08:29What does you remember?
08:30What happened in Indira Gandhi's time
08:32when Ramlal asked for a parade
08:34of NTR's MLA's famously.
08:36So, let's not even go down what used to happen in the 1980s.
08:39So, that was condemned.
08:41That was condemned.
08:42And NTR got a thumping majority.
08:45I am not supporting it.
08:46If Mr. Ramlal did something wrong,
08:48I am not supporting it.
08:49It would be water bountry for me to support it.
08:52Today, what he is doing is,
08:54he is saying,
08:55I am going to give myself sufficient time
08:57to tie myself up in knots
08:59and to myself create a dilemma
09:02for myself when none exists.
09:04Okay.
09:05I have got it.
09:06Dr. Singhvi, as I said,
09:07Abhishek Singhvi ko gussa kiyo aata hai?
09:10Now, I don't know whether you are advising Vijay
09:12or not in this case,
09:13but I appreciate you joining us
09:15and making it very clear.
09:16You believe single largest party
09:18must be invited by the governor.
09:20There can be no prevarication,
09:23particularly because no other pre-poll
09:26or even post-poll alliance
09:27has staked a claim to form a government.
09:29So, therefore, there is only one contender
09:32at the moment and he should be given…
09:34The governor cannot be in the business, Rajdeep,
09:36of allowing time or facilitating
09:39those who have lost the election
09:40to form post-poll alliances
09:42and then come
09:43or create a president's rule situation
09:45and then get somebody else later on.
09:47This is not the way democracy works.
09:49This is not the spirit of democracy.
09:51You have to be a graceful loser.
09:53And as far as I know,
09:54today there is a very statesman-like statement
09:56from DMK.
09:57I am not sure.
09:58It may be subject to correction.
09:59They said that the public mandate
10:01is for Vijay.
10:02We will not interfere
10:03and do nitpicking for six months.
10:05That's the spirit of democracy.
10:07I've taken your point, Dr. Singh.
10:09We appreciate you joining us here
10:11on the show tonight.
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