Maha Governor's resignation: Govt. sending wrong signal to North-East, says Manish Tewari

Reacting to K Sankaranarayanan's resignations from the post of Maharashtra Governor on being transferred to Mizoram, Congress leader Manish Tewari today criticised the Government for sending a wrong signal to the people of northeast that the posting to the region is a punishment.

"The larger question is, what is the signal that you are sending to the people of the north-east, are you sending them a signal that north-east is a punishment posting. One after the other you are posting governors to the north-east then removing them in an ignominious manner, do you consider the north-east to be a part of India? Is this the manner in which you want to emotionally and politically integrate the people of the north-east," said Tewari.

"By its actions not only has the government demeaned the position of the governor, not only have they totally and flagrantly violated the constitutional judgement with regard to governors but more importantly they are sending very wrong signals to the people of the north-east which is not in national interest," he added.

Sankaranarayanan, who resigned as the Governor of Maharashtra yesterday, had categorically said that he would not go to Mizoram.

An official release by President Pranab Mukherjee's office on Sunday stated that Sankaranarayanan had been transferred to Mizoram for the remainder of his term as Governor.

Stating emphatically that it was impossible for him to go to Mizoram, Sankaranarayanan said that he was resigning from his post.

According to reports, Sankaranarayanan had earlier threatened to put in his resignation if transferred, stating that he would no longer wish to be a Governor bearing the "disgrace of being transferred".

Sankaranayaran was succeeded by Om Prakash Kohli who had yesterday sworn in as Maharashtra Governor.