Till the UPA extended support in Jharkhand to the independents led by Madhu Koda — sworn in as chief minister on Tuesday — one was tempted to view the current events in Jharkhand politics as a step forward in its tryst with democracy. This judgment, perverse as it may appear, is based on a comparison with the earlier episode of March 2005 when, as Neerja Chowdhury argued, “every constitutional institution overstepped its jurisdiction”. An analysis of the contrasting ways in which the governor, speaker, chief minister, assembly and the courts behaved then, and responded now, leads one to conclude that democratic norms appear to be taking root in Jharkhand. Unfortunately, the celebration was short lived.

Madhu Koda’s swearing in with the outside support of the Congress is indeed a sad commentary on the moral depths to which the Congress has sunk since 2004, when Sonia Gandhi refused the crown invoking conscience.

Conscience was certainly not active here. The idea of an independent as CM, when there are parties and pre-poll coalitions in the assembly, sends out a certain message about how to maximise political payoffs. The status of parties as instruments of democracy, as recruiters of leaders and mobilisers of citizens, has been severely undermined. This is plain ball-tampering.

Now for the good news. The behaviour of the governor, speaker, CM, assembly and courts shows that they have learnt their democratic lessons from March 2005. This holds that institutions have rules of behaviour and decisions that need to be observed and must, irrespective of political ambition, guide political action. Good democracy, like good cricket, must play according to the rules. The responses of different authorities in the past week demonstrate some measure of institutional learning. This is good news for Jharkhand even if it is only temporary.

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