Modi govt shows UPA governors the door

l UP’s Banwarilal Joshi first to quit l Congress, CPI (M) slam move as unconstitutional 

TEAM HERALD 

teamherald@herald-goa.com 

NEW DELHI: The  Narendra Modi government set in motion the process of eliminating governors appointed by the previous United Progressive Alliance (UPA) regime with Uttar Pradesh Governor Banwarilal Joshi (78), being the first to quit on Tuesday after the Union Home secretary Anil Goswami called  up the Raj Bhavan to seek the resignation.

The new government is also working on removal of political appointees as members in bodies like National Disaster Management Authority. 78-year-old Joshi, an ex-IPS official known for his proximity to Nehru-Gandhi family, sent his resignation to the Home Ministry, a day after the Centre made known to some of the governors that they quit in the wake of change in government.

Congress and CPI (M) slammed the move as unconstitutional and unethical. But BJP leaders felt there was nothing wrong in such a decision.

Among those understood to have been called are Maharashtra Governor K Sankaranarayanan, a Congressman from Kerala, Dikshit, a former Delhi chief minister who was appointed just on the eve of announcement of Lok Sabha polls, West Bengal Governor M K Narayanan and Nagaland Governor Ashwani Kumar, a former CBI director. Kamla Beniwal, who did not share good relations with Modi during his tenure as chief minister in Gujarat, may also be on the way out.

There was wild speculation in the electronic media on resignations by Karnataka Governor Hansraj Bhardwaj and Assam Governor J B Patnaik after they called on President Pranab Mukherjee here on Tuesday but both denied any such step. Bhardwaj asked why he should quit when his term in any case is coming to an end in just 12 days on June 29. Patnaik also insisted that his term is up to December and he has no reason to oblige Modi.

Nor did Rajasthan Governor Margaret Alva resign as speculation was rife since her meeting first with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and then President Mukherjee, claiming they were courtesy calls. Her term is up to August 6 and the government can wait as the BJP's Vasundhara Raje government has no problems with her, the BJP sources said.

Some other governors whom the Modi government wants to go are Punjab's Shivraj Patil, Madhya Pradesh's Ram Naresh Yadav, West Bengal's M K Narayanan, Tripura's Devendra Konwar and Maharashtra's K Sankaranarayanan. While Patil's term is up to January, Konwar's is up to July 27,

Though there was no official word on the whole development, Home Ministry sources said Joshi's resignation has been received and has been sent to the Prime Minister's Office for approval.

The tenure of Joshi had expired only a few months ago and he was sworn in again for another term.

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh reportedly commented that if he were in the place of these governors he would have quit.

Most of the Congress leaders in the Raj Bhavans indicated that they are not going to step down even while knowing well that the Modi government has the powers to recommend that the president to transfer them to the smaller states and bring in their own men. The lead was taken reportedly by 76-year old Kerala Governor Sheila Dikshit, Union Home Secretary Anil Goswami suggestion that she quit, telling him to put in writing and let the president decide. 

Her son and Congress spokesman Sandeep Dikshit in Delhi said: "This is witch-hunting and abuse of power. Who is the home secretary to call a governor?" He said such moves could be challenged since they violate a Supreme Court ruling. Other Congress leaders wondered why the government is showing its arrogance to assert its prerogative to remove the governors when most of them have just few days or few months left before their terms expire.

The BJP circles, however, cited the precedence of the UPA government in 2004 advising  National Democractic Alliance (NDA) -appointed governors to resign. While some of them had resigned on their own, others were asked to put in their papers. None of the UPA-appointed governors have resigned after the swearing in of Modi.

The Congress is, however, quoting the Supreme Court's Constitution Bench ruling in 2010 to assert that removal of any governor will be unconstitutional. After the UPA government had axed the NDA appointees in 2004, then BJP member of parliament B P Singhal had moved the court which held that the governors were not employees of the Union government and cannot be removed "in an arbitrary and capricious manner.”.:

The five-judge Constitution Bench, headed by then Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan with S H Kapadia and P Sathasivam who rose to be the chief justices among its members, had disapproved the practice of replacing governors after a new government comes to power at the Centre, saying governors are appointed for a fixed five-year term and as such they cannot be changed in an arbitrary and capricious manner.

The court had rejected the then UPA government's plea that the conflict of a governor's views with the national policy can justify his removal from office by cutting short their tenure 

Leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad reminded the government of the Supreme Court and called the move to remove governors of various states as “dictatorial".

CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechurry said the move to replace the governors was “not ethical” just because they have been appointed by the previous government.