The lows of a high office: 'My ear is not working'

The moves made by former West Bengal governor Jagdeep Dhankhar and his subsequent elevation as vice president have set a new benchmark for the actions of those who occupy Raj Bhavans

Last month, a reporter asked West Bengal Governor L Ganesan when he would clear the Howrah Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2021, which proposes to carve out the Bally Municipality from the Howrah Municipal Corporation area. The governor had returned the Bill to the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress government for reconsideration. The government claims that the Bill was sent back to the governor and is awaiting his assent. So what was the status of the Bill, he was asked.

“My ear is not working,” he replied.

The elevation of former West Bengal governor Jagdeep Dhankhar as vice-president has sent many hopes soaring high. Mr Dhankhar’s tenure in Kolkata was marked by periodic tangling with the Trinamool Congress, the ruling party in the state. It is hard to say who was right and who was wrong. Which political party, for instance, has protested at Raj Bhavan with processions of sheep and goats? Mr Dhankhar responded by doing satyagraha and going on fasts. But suffice it to say that the moves made by him and his subsequent elevation have set a new benchmark for the actions of those who occupy Raj Bhavans.

The use — and misuse — of the office of governor was cause célèbre, especially in opposition politics in the decade of the 1980s. For reporters, it was a wonderful time, especially when the then governor of Andhra Pradesh, Ram Lal, dismissed the elected, majority government of N T Rama Rao and installed Nadendla Bhaskara Rao in office with the clear and unambiguous approval of then prime minister Indira Gandhi. Worse, the drama occurred when NTR was in the US for a coronary bypass, and images of him returning from his travels and sleeping, exhausted, on a bench at Begumpet airport caught public imagination like nothing else.

Then there were the antics of A P Sharma, another Congress governor in Left Front-ruled West Bengal. As chancellor of Calcutta University, he appointed Santosh Bhattacharya vice-chancellor, leading to protests that then chief minister Jyoti Basu himself led. Sharma’s short stint (1983-84) saw frenzied public protests as cries of “A P Sharma gaddi choro, Bangal choro (A P Sharma leave your chair, leave Bengal)” rent the air. Soon after, in 1989, the appointment of T V Rajeshwar, who was Intelligence Bureau chief, as West Bengal governor by Rajiv Gandhi did nothing to dispel suspicion and he was replaced when V P Singh came to power with the support of the CPI(M).

When the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government came to power in 2014, cooperative federalism became the buzzword especially after the Finance Commission award. But the role of governor continued to be a bugbear. Problems started from the word go. Jyoti Prasad Rajkhowa, an IAS officer from Assam, was appointed governor of Arunachal Pradesh. In 2016, Mr Rajkhowa was asked to step down from the governorship by then home minister Rajnath Singh and, when he refused, had to be dismissed by the president after the Supreme Court criticised in trenchant terms the governor’s actions in dismissing a Congress government. The BJP claimed it had nothing to do with the Rajkhowa operation. That’s not what Mr Rajkhowa said.

Kiran Bedi, who as Puducherry lieutenant governor created many problems for the previous Congress government, led by V Narayanaswamy, is yet to be rehabilitated by the BJP. But in Delhi, the elected Aam Aadmi Party government is facing extensive scrutiny and pressure from Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena: Reviewing for instance, aspects of the emission inventory like road dust and vehicular emissions (he says dust and transport emissions account for 26 per cent and 41 per cent, respectively, of air pollution in the city, contradicting the AAP government, which says stubble burning in neighbouring states is the main reason).

In Telangana, Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan refused to clear P Kaushik Reddy’s nomination as Telangana Rashtra Samithi candidate to the Legislative Council from the governor’s quota last year. Mr Reddy had crossed over to the TRS from the Congress. This and other incidents found a reverberation in her home state Tamil Nadu, where the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam warned Governor R N Ravi against emulating Ms Soundararajan. “No duly elected government will accept it if the Bills passed in the Assembly are not forwarded for presidential assent. Governors should not stand in the way of people-friendly initiatives,” DMK organ Murasoli said after Mr Ravi held back a Bill passed by the Assembly to replace the governor by the chief minister as chancellor of state universities.

In the eyes of the opposition, recent actions of the Maharashtra government show that the governor “is an agent” of the central government. The Maha Vikas Aghadi, which went out of power some months ago, had many run-ins with Governor B S Koshyari and last year had passed a Bill that empowered the state government to recommend to the governor the names for appointment as vice-chancellors in state universities. That Bill was withdrawn by the Eknath Shinde-led Sena-BJP government a few days ago. So the relationship between Raj Bhavan and the elected government depends on the colour of the elected government?

Isn’t it time, keeping in view its commitment to cooperative federalism, the Centre initiated a debate about a clearer definition of the rights and powers of the governor?