Central Govt. to sack Orissa Govt.?

The nationwide revulsion at the confirmed rape of a 28-year-old nun in the troubled Kandhamal district of Orissa almost gave the UPA government at the Centre the requisite handle to dismiss the Naveen Patnaik Government. Having earlier sent a warning to the state government (though Article 355 was not invoked), a section of the Manmohan Singh government seriously believed that the imposition of President’s rule under Article 356 was the logical next step. It didn’t happen because Congressruled Assam also witnessed communal clashes and because there are multiple power centres in the Cabinet—each one negating the other.

Those with memories may recall that there was still a Congress government in Bhubaneshwar when the Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons were burnt to death in an inaccessible corner of Mayurbhanj district in Orissa on January 22, 1999.

The Vajpayee Government, which was then in power at the Center, sent its senior most Christian minister George Fernandes to the spot to reassure local Christians. The stress was on confidence building measures, not political recriminations.

That was because both the Centre and the state government knew the murder of Staines flowed from local tensions centred on competitive religiosity.

If the center is unwilling to dismiss the W.B and Assam Govt. then what right they have to sack Orissa Govt.?