In order to protect its MLA Harak Singh Rawat from disqualification over the Office of Profit issue; the Uttarakhand govt has hastily brought the office of profit ordinance. The Uttarakhand government has issued a notification promulgating an ordinance dropping four positions from the office of profit list. The notification was issued on Saturday. Since the Governor has the power to pass an Ordinance ( in Hindi "Adhyadesh"), the Governor's office has passed the said ordinance. Now the ordinance will remain in force for six months and before the expiry of the six months period, the Government will make it a law via normal channel, that's the Uttarakhand assembly.

Post ordinance, theTarai Seeds Development Corporation (TSDC), Seeds Certification Corporation (SCC) and the Uttarakhand Purva Sainik Kalyan Nigam Ltd (UPSKNL) and the Punjabi and Urdu Academy will be out of the ambit of office of profit. In addition these Offices will be out with retrospective effect, that is, the five corporations would stand to be kept out from the office of profit from the dates they came into being. Yes, all this to save one MLA.

So what?

Now, the Leader of opposition in Uttarakhand and BJP MLA from Ranikhet Ajay Bhatt and state BJP chief Tirath Singh Rawat said on Monday that they will file a writ in Uttarakhand HC in a day or two to challenge it.

Mr. Bhatt alleged that the ordinance was promulgated to save state agriculture minister Harak Singh Rawat who is a close confidant of chief minister Vijay Bahuguna. He holds posts in the Tarai Seeds Development Corporation (TSDC), Seeds Certification Corporation (SCC) and the Uttarakhand Purva Sainik Kalyan Nigam Ltd (UPSKNL) which the BJP says is in violation of constitutional norms. The issue became prominent after the BJP attacked Rawat for holding more than one office of profit for financial benefit by violating articles 102(1) and 191(1) of the constitution. They demanded Rawat's disqualification as an MLA from state assembly.

Now that the ordinance has been passed, it's clear that the Uttarakhand Government took the step to save it self from embarrassment and more correctly from losing one MLA. So what? Any government in that position would have done the same. Leave Congress, if BJP would have been in the same situation, it would have done the same (And that's quite acceptable).

I think, BJP is still trying to topple the present Uttarakhand Government, some way or the other, and make its own government here. Which is somewhat ridiculous.

Ridiculous because, more than One year has passed  since the last Uttarakhand Assembly Elections and now it's time for much needed governance. If BJP keeps focusing on toppling the government and makes its own one all the time, then who will press the government to make important laws for the people of the state? Hence, lets request BJP not to focus on snatching the power now and instead do its duty of a worthy opposition. BJP may experiment with three CMs during its stint at Government; but when the other party is in power, then let it do the much needed work. India is too poor to afford re-elections and Power Games.

In the mean time, there's nothing wrong in going to court on Office of Profit ordinance. But, I hope the idea here should be just to file the petition at HC and forget. Legal proceedings take time, so why ignore all work at hand and wait for the verdict. Instead, why not focus on the duties of a worthy opposition. BJP must listen, else the entire 5 years will vanish in the Government toppling attempts.
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