Published: Publish Date – 12:45 AM, Mon – 30 May 22
Arun Sinha
There is a clear pattern of dealings of governors with governments in states. Governors of BJP-ruled states have warm, loving relations with their governments. In states governed by opposition parties friendly to the Modi government – such as Odisha and Andhra Pradesh – governors have gone to the extent of publicly praising governments, playing a friendly and supportive role. Andhra Pradesh Governor Biswa Bhushan Harichandan recently lauded the YSRCP government: “Andhra Pradesh is moving in the right direction.”
lost heat
However, in states where other opposition parties are ruling, the governors haven’t had words of warmth or appreciation for the governments. They see only darkness there. They see things falling apart. They see the killing of the rules and the killings of the norms.
Mostly they speak the language of the opposition (ie BJP) there. There was an incident of rape and murder in Maharashtra. The BJP demanded convening of a special session of the assembly to discuss ‘safety of women’. Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari has written a letter to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray asking him to convene a two-day special session to discuss the issue. In a typical Shiv-Senask repost, Thackeray sent a reply to Koshyari requesting him to write a letter to the central government to convene a four-day special session of Parliament to discuss ‘women’s safety and security’ as it was a ” national issue” and “is not limited to any particular state.”
After the state elections in 2019, Koshyari made BJP Legislature Party leader Devendra Fadnavis the chief minister, even though he had no letters of support from other parties to claim a majority. Fadnavis had to resign as he could not prove his majority. Soon after the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government was formed, the state cabinet decided to nominate Uddhav Thackeray to the Legislative Council. But Koshyari refused to approve the cabinet decision for months, despite repeated requests to do so. There came a time when it seemed that six months would pass and Thackeray would have to resign. Why did Koshyari put Thackeray on tenterhook? To force them to return to an alliance with the BJP? There is no proof of this, but it seems plausible, as in many cases the actions or non-actions of Koshyari have been against the MVA government and favorable to the BJP.
The Koshyari-Thackeray firing in Maharashtra looks like a gentlemen’s game in comparison to what is going on between Jagdeep Dhankhar and Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal. Every day there is shelling from both sides. The governor shouts to the world, “West Bengal has become the gas chamber of democracy”, and the chief minister shouts back, “We have a king in the Raj Bhavan. He has a very loose tongue. He speaks like a BJP president.” And one of his ministers says that he looks like ‘Pagla Jagai’, a crazy character created by Bengali poet Sukumar Roy.
Hanumanji as Governor
Will the governor-opposition government conflict stop? The answer is no. Not because the BJP leadership wants the governor to try to portray opposition governments in a bad light as much as possible. This is not an invention of BJP. The Congress also used governors as its hanuman in its heyday. It also did everything to prove that the opposition kingdoms were Lanka ruled by the Ravanas. If tomorrow Congress returns to power at the Centre, it will return to the same game.
The reason for this not stopping is that the governor of our republic enjoys the same powers as the governor appointed by the British Crown. Article 163 of the Constitution, which defines the role of the Governor, is a copy of Section 50 of the Government of India Act, 1935, which defines the role of the British Governor. Like the colonial governor, the governor of independent India, while exercising his functions usually with the aid and advice of the Council of Ministers, is given the space for discretion or personal judgment. The space for such discretion is infinite, for the areas where it can act at its discretion are not precisely defined. And, to top it all, the validity of anything done by him in his discretion cannot be called in question by a council of ministers or a court of law.
This is the space that governors use to create problems for opposition governments. They can sit indefinitely on a bill passed by the Assembly, as sought by the Tamil Nadu governor, for the state’s exemption from the National Entrance-cum-Eligibility Test (NEET) for medical courses. They can send passed bills or cabinet decisions back to the government along with notes and questions, as the Tamil Nadu governor did with the NEET exemption bill. The Governor of Jharkhand is withholding his assent to several bills on this or that basis.
constitutional watchdog
What is the way to stop the governors from acting as the hanuman of the party in power at the Centre? The easiest answer would be: amend Article 163 to take away their discretionary powers. But it would be a solution fraught with dangers and inconsistent with democratic values.
The governor will be the rubber stamp of the state government without room for personal judgment. This will give complete freedom to the state governments to act as per their wish. The father of our constitution, like the colonial governor, gave the Republican governor a place for personal judgment, the reason for this being to ensure that there was someone to oversee the work of the state government in accordance with the constitution. This was to prevent the state governments from going in the wrong direction. The governor was to be a constitutional watchdog.
But what is happening is that the governor is obstructing the legislations and cabinet decisions of the opposition governments, which have been rejected by the party in power at the Centre. Instead of acting as a constitutional watchdog, the governor is acting like a hunting dog of the central government.
The solution lies in changing the way governors are appointed. If the main criterion of appointment is political allegiance to the party in power at the Centre, then we will always have constitutionally camouflaged governors who are harassing and harassing opposition governments.
Do not abolish the office of governor. Don’t take away his discretionary powers. Take away the powers of the central government to appoint governors. Give that power to a committee consisting of the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, the Chief Minister of the State, a retired Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, a Constitutional Counsel and other independent members. Then independent governors and state governments can act in the best interest of the people who benefit from mutual advice.
(The author is a freelance journalist and author)
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