Article 356 of the Indian Constitution has been the victim of bad governance during the last five decades. Otherwise it is in no way incongruous that it would require recast or annulment. By the ignominious acts of the men who wielded absolute governmental power, they got astray from the path of good governance and tried to make the said article appear rogue in its content.

The State of India in fact, is a heterogeneous conglomeration (of course homogenous by compulsion, constraints and consent) of diverse cultures, variety of languages,  and even different habits of life and living styles. If our memory doesn’t fail us we were witnesses to Dravidian agitation in 1952 which started in Tamil Nadu professing Hindi having been foisted on them under the pretext of its recognition as a National Language. In fact it had the seeds of separation from Mother India. To assuage such sinister feelings of domination by the north of the South, English language too was recognized as one of Indian languages. We Indians have to be careful not to allow such nefarious elements-if they still are present in our society-to raise their ugly head. India is our motherland and a boon for us. It is our duty to absorb each other’s culture and have one rule and one way of life through out our handsome country. In fact of matter, Indians particularly the majority community having got the land, once a compact piece for aeons past, back from the foreigners after hundreds of years’ occupation; though at the cost of its trifurcating, are determined to weave it into one strong cohesive identity so that it does not slip out again and falls into the vortex of global politics.

The present third line politicians fully know that before the advent of Islam, India was divided into small different principalities ruled by small kings/Rajas who were usualy absorbed more in mutual skirmishes among themselves than rule their tit bit territories with adequate care for their subjects. Islam, while affecting proselytisation, established an Empire in the subcontinent. The British took over, ruled the country, looted its wealth and made Great Britian what it is today. They too extended the boundaries of their Raj, which covered the then British India sans the Princes? States. Under the impact of whole Nation’s  ‘Quit Notice’ British Government handed over the reins of the Empire to the Indians in August

1947 AD, allowing the feudal princes to choose their own interests in so far as the accession of their states was concerned. Our Great Sardar-Vallab Bhai Patel-iron man of India, then Home/States Minister consolidated it further by annexing the princely States to the British component and today we see India, a composite and compact country worth its name and fame.

It was the wisdom and ingenuity of our worthy framers of the constitution who, were aware of the nature and the cultural angularities of the people of India that they provided Article 356 in the statute book; simultaneously moulding the polity of the State of India into a unique system of governance which neither is unitary nor federal in character. The system would have worked more satisfactorily had not the ruling political parties mis-used its application all these years with impunity to perpetuate their control over the Nation.

The erstwhile United Front Government aped its predecessors and started destabilizing the State governments inimical to the party line. It succeeded in Gujrat but failed in Rajasthan. It seemed that the only agenda of that government was to mis-use the provision to its fullest extent as long as the UF government was saddled over the lame horse. The conglomerate hotch-potch government which swore by all what was dear to each of its constituents, was to do away with the said article because before ascension to the Delhi throne they had not tasted the flavor of power and pelf. As soon as they entered the labyrinth of power, they began playing the game that had been played by its predecessors for four decades of unbridled political and governmental power that made them run amuck. This UF hotch-potch smelt that the center was just within its reach, sank differences, at least as long as the Congress provided propellants to make it remain alive, manouevred to defeat the 13 day old BJP government. It succeeded and sat pleasurably in the respective ministerial cozy chairs with all pomp and show. The communists whose Namboodarypad government in Kerala had been dismissed by Nehru government in 50s bore strong antipathy for the Congress and therefore waited for an opportunity to do away with this provision of the constitution. But the greatest irony of the style of governance of the UF government and the heinous historical redundance for India and its polity were that despite despising the use of Art 356, it itself misused it in the States of Gujrat brazen-facedly and subsequently tried its hand in Rajasthan. The Government of UP was kept in hanging animation because UP Government was unable to form its own government of State nor were any of its constituents. Mr Dev Gowda, unknown beyond the State of Karnataka did not know the craft of governance of as huge a country as India, proved misfit.

The Congress withdrew support. He fell like a wooden log. IK Gujral stepped in and ran away, at least with a feather added to his cap, an epithet ‘former Prime Minister of India’. Fresh election was conducted and the 12th Parliament formed. Though Congress tried its best not to allow the BJP, being the party with largest number of members, to form the government, this party cobbled 17 smaller parties together and got ensaddled over the coveted Delhi throne. It is an inexperienced political out-fit, tasting the sweetness of the power but frittering away energies in the mis-governance of the country; notwithstanding the fact that it chose to throw away the stinking mantle of communalism as otherwise the party could not crave for the throne of India.

It goes to the credit of this party that it did not yield to the pressure of its constituents and refrained from touching the article under reference. But this government fell to the pressure of one of its constituents

Parties; viz: Samta party and destabilised the Laloo/Rabri  Devi government of Bihar and brought trouble for itself. The wily Congress, though in agreement with the BJP government, did play somersault throwing the government into the net. It (the government) couldn’t understand what  Congress was weaving around it clandestinely. If any government saddled in the Delhi throne tries to handle the provision of Article 356 with malice it shall hardly be tolerated even for a day.

Let all the political parties keep this fact in mind. If any of the provisions of the Constitution requires amendment, it is precisely Artical 157 which initially is absurd inasmuch as the party in power enseats either a defeated candidate or a favorite upon whom benefactions are required to be showered. The party politics being quite different from the art of governance, Governor of State requires to be a man of integrity, shrewd and possessing administrative acumen. He should not act as a spy of the Central government nor should he be a vanquished hero of the party in power. During the half century of Congress/UF rule over the country it has been experienced that the Governor of State dances to the tune of the Center and obliges it by a pliable report whenever the Center wants him to send such a report about the

State especially when the Center and the State are governed by two different political parties. Such kind of governance by a tutored Governor is shame-facedly mis-governance and misuse of the provisions of Article

356. As such Article 157 requires drastic amendment. The Governor of a State should not be less than 65 years of age. He should invariably be strictly a non-political person, having never been member of any political party. He can be a retired bureaucrat with a clean public image, honest in dealings during his service period, possessing independent individuality, not prone to succumb to influence of the ruling or the opposition parties. Preferably he should be an eminent jurist or a high profile Supreme Court Lawyer. His selection should be got rectified in the Lok Sabha by a simple majority of the members present on the day of ratification, so that his dismissal or replacement is out of the hands of the Central government. Such a persons shall not give in to the dictates of the ruling party at the Center, nor shall he allow mis-use of Article 356.