Governance in Goa has increasingly become a challenge to the constitutional scheme of things. Recently chief minister Digambar Kamat abruptly requested speaker Pratapsinh Rane to adjourn proceedings for the day, in the middle of an assembly session, to visit some accident victims. It was a flimsy pretext to avoid the prospects of facing an immediate trial of strength on the floor of the House that could have resulted in the downfall of his government. Three legislators, two of them ministers, who constitute the legislature party of the Nationalist Congress Party, suddenly revolted against Kamat, along with an independent minister and presumably some legislators from the chief minister’s Congress party as well. Kamat knew he lacked majority support in the 40-member House at that time. On his request and concurrence of the speaker, Governor
S C Jamir, subsequently prorogued the assembly session, to ensure that Kamat would have enough time to clear the political mess before facing the House.

Constitutionally speaking, it is improper to prorogue an assembly session to save the government. Whenever there is a question mark about the majority-support for the government, the first thing that should happen is to summon a session of the House for a floor test. What happened in Goa last week was totally to the contrary. This was not the first time. Last July too Kamat had to take shelter under this constitutionally questionable method to save his government. Then the speaker came to his rescue by blatantly disallowing three legislators from casting their vote when Kamat was mandated to take a trust vote.

Ironically, however, the Goan politics is so fragmented and politicians so fickle-minded in recent years that it would appear impossible to run a stable government, let alone running a coalition government. The Kamat ministry which has just been in office for seven months since the last assembly elections would almost certainly have fallen at least twice but for a sympathetic speaker and governor. Indeed, most of the short-lived coalition governments in Goa over the past two decades would have had even shorter stints but for accommodative speakers and governors. Unfortunately, that was the only way to ensure that the state had an elected government. In the process, however, governors and speakers have also been over exposed to criticism of being partisan in their conduct. There may be no escape from this until Goan politicians learn to practice a more responsible and predictable politics.