Atul Cowshish
After taking some widely hailed ‘bold’ and ‘innovative’ initiatives during its initial days, the Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance Government has strayed into controversial territories that can much deplete its stock of goodwill. It took recourse to the ordinance route for appointing a bureaucrat and it refuses to remove a minister who has been accused by a woman of sexually assaulting her.
The Government has enlarged the scope for its criticism by seeking the removal of state governors appointed by the UPA Government. They have been told verbally to quit the Raj Bhavans for no reason other than that the BJP wishes to replace them with its own team of unemployed party veterans.
Luckily for the Government, the ordinance issue has quickly disappeared from the radar. But the efforts to shield the controversial chemical and fertilizer minister, Nihal Chand Meghwal, have angered the civil society.
The BJP-led NDA Government has gone back on its own pre-poll promise of taking quick action in cases of crimes against women. Perhaps the Government feels that the nation is more riveted on rape and other crimes against women taking place in UP and elsewhere than on the allegations against its Minister.
The Modi Government has to reckon with criticism on the issue of sacking State governors from both expected and unexpected quarters. It faces fire from not only its political opponents but also from a large section of the media which has rallied behind Modi after condemning him for years for his alleged involvement in the Gujarat pogrom of 2002 and his alleged arrogance.
The governors who are on the exit list might have been appointed by the previous Government but that alone cannot be a justifiable reason for seeking their removal. Though the Congress stands on weak ground in questioning the quit notice on the governors, the party seems to draw strength from a Supreme Court ruling of 2010, a year after UPA II assumed office, that held that a governor cannot be removed in an ‘arbitrary, capricious and unreasonable’ manner.
The UP governor, B.L. Joshi, was the first to resign as soon it became clear that the NDA Government wants the UPA-appointed State governors out of office to ‘rehabilitate’ its restive unemployed veterans. Joshi was followed, a bit hesitatingly perhaps, by a few other governors while others ‘refused’ to resign, maintaining that they were not obliged to do so.
Joshi was not a ‘political appointee’ because he had retired from the police service when he first moved into the Raj Bhavan at Lucknow. Not all those appointed to the gubernatorial post were active in Congress politics; many were bureaucrats or military officers. What was common to them all was that they were being ‘rewarded’ with a plum post after their retirement from service or opting out of active Congress politics.
The NDA sees nothing wrong in its action because it is only repeating what the Congress Government did when it took over from a BJP-led coalition. It maintains that the governors appointed by one political party cannot be expected to function smoothly in a political scenario dominated by a rival party.
It is not uncommon to find the governor in conflict with the state of which he or she is the head. The chances of such conflicts do arise when different or rival political parties are in power at the centre and the states. Despite being a ceremonial head of a province, the governor does have powers that can and do sour relations between the governor and the State Government.
The justification that the BJP is offering for its move to replace governors confirms the belief that the otherwise ‘ceremonial’ post of governor is used for political ends by the party in power. It betrays the BJP as a party that has no qualms about taking a U-turn to emulate the egregious acts of the Congress of which it was critical as an opposition party.
When the NDA-appointed governors were sacked by the UPA leading stalwarts of the BJP, from Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L.K. Advani down to the young rising stars of the party had condemned it in strong words, calling it an assault on democracy and so on. The media was equally vehement in its criticism. The BJP expects to be applauded for replaying the same act.
Neither the BJP nor the Congress or any other party will accept that they pick up governors for states from a pool of party members or sympathisers. They will not agree that governorship is a just reward for those they cannot accommodate in the Government or the top hierarchy of their party.
Modi has chosen to lead a team dominated by younger party members-his loyalists, largely. The veterans cannot, however, be rendered ‘idle’ and cannot be made to feel ‘neglected’. In the effusive atmosphere in favour of Modi to which the veterans had also contributed, the celebrated ‘old guard’ of the party may not be in a position to do much damage to his Government by raising a banner of revolt but their continuous presence in active politics can be disconcerting to a leader like Modi who does not believe in seeking counsel from his party veterans. He would rather have them packed off to the sprawling Raj Bhavans across the country.
The tussle and the controversy over the governors have once again brought into focus the institution of the governor itself. Many feel that the post being largely ceremonial should be dispensed with. That kind of drastic step is unlikely to be taken in the near future. But what can and must be done is to de-politicise the office of the governor. To begin with the practice of ‘rehabilitating’ party leaders should be stopped. No politician should be shifted to a Raj Bhavan straight from the political field. If it has to be a politician, he or she should have served a reasonable ‘cooling off’ period after quitting active politics. A moot point here is that politicians in India rarely ‘retire’. But a better choice will be looking for people who have earned name and fame in non-political fields and who can be trusted to stay above political considerations that present governors are often accused of.
(Syndicate Features)
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