A bad tit for tat
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: June 18, 2014 -

The resignation Uttar Pradesh Governor BL Joshi on Tuesday after allegedly getting feelers from the BJP-led NDA Government at the Centre and the reports that some Governors appointed by the previous Congress-led UPA government are also likely to follow suit has yet again sparked off a political row between the ruling and the opposition parties.

But the truth is that this insidious nudging of the Governors to quit whenever a new party comes to power at the Centre has been a norm rather than an exception in India, though an unwritten one in the law book.

Today, Congress party may be crying foul against the move to remove the Governors, terming it as political vendetta, and “dictatorial” step that will have “serious repercussions”, but this was the same thing that BJP had said in 2004 when UPA replaced the NDA at the Centre and several Governors with alleged ‘RSS background’ were shown the door even before their term was over.

At that time BJP had even approached the Supreme Court, which subsequently ruled that, “A governor cannot be removed on the ground that he is out of sync with the policies and ideologies of the Union government or the party in power at the Centre.

Nor can he be removed on the ground that the Union government has lost confidence in him. It follows, therefore, that change in government at Centre is not a ground for removal of governors holding office to make way for others favoured by the new government.”

However, with change in power equation today, BJP has forgotten about all these.

From its political appointment to the use of discretionary powers, the post of Governor as the Constitutional head of a State in India has its own share of controversies.

It is also equally true that the dictatorial role that a Governor could play at times in a State politics by transcending all democratic limits and misuse of the post of the Governor by different political parties for their partisan interests have always given the feeling that we live in a very fragile democratic society, which still has many more political milestones to be covered before it could consider itself to have reached the stage of real political modernisation.

All these have also given the impression that the office of the Governor is just a place for retired Babus and Army men and its maintenance is just waste of public money, and thus, better to be done away with altogether.

However, the fact still remains that with the shift in political party system from one-party dominance to a multi-party system, the post of Governor is no more just ‘a bird in a golden cage’ (as described by Sarojini Naidu, who was a Governor of Uttar Pradesh at one time) or an agent of the Centre who judiciously sends his fortnightly report to the President.

So, for any responsible Government at the Centre, whether someone is appointed by the previous Government or not should be a needless issue to meddle in, for there are many more issues that need to pay attention.

By the way, if it is all about taking political revenge, will BJP remove UPA-nominated President Pranab Mukherjee as well?