Karnataka's last resort politics

Where in parliamentary democracies around the world do political parties drag Supreme Court judges in the middle marches of the night to decide who will rule?

“The people have a perfect right to be fickle, if they please,” wrote Walter Bagehot, the 19th century English political analyst and constitutional authority, adding, “It is obviously absurd that any section of the sovereign people should be openly flouted by the agent, now the paid agent, appointed to register its commands. No sensible tradesman would conduct his business on such lines”. 

The spectacle provided by the Karnataka election’s hung verdict this week would be merely farcical were it not tragic for the practice of democracy. About the only people to emerge running a sensible, lucrative trade are the resort owners