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Katnataka & Governor’s Role: PLAYING THE CENTRE’S CHAPRASI, By Poonam I Kaushish; 3 November 2007 Print E-mail

POLITICAL DIARY

New Delhi, 3 November 2007

 

Katnataka & Governor’s Role

PLAYING THE CENTRE’S CHAPRASI

By Poonam I Kaushish

 

Public life in India has hit a rotten disgusting low. Free India hasn’t seen or experienced anything like the goings-on of the past fortnight in Karnataka. And how developments there continue to deteriorate from bad to worse. Today, it is a stinking example of the murder of democratic morals and principles at high noon on a busy crossing! All to attain power and yet more power. And, at any cost. All else be damned!

 

Tragically, the continuing charade being played out in Bangalore and Delhi has once again brutally exposed two highly reprehensible facets of our rulers’ democratic temper. At the political level, governance is shamelessly all about cutting deals, side deals and underhand deals. At the Constitutional level, the Governor has been reduced to being the Centre’s chaprasi.

 

Think. From the “worst ever betrayal” by the conspiring father-son Gowda duo to becoming ‘bhai-bhai’ once again for the sake of power, both the BJP and Janata Dal (S) have come a long way. Brought about by the former Prime Minister and JD supremo Deve Gowda through a dramatic U turn after he came to know that the Congress was two-timing him --- by simultaneously talking to him and his party’s rebel leader Prakash. Faced with the prospect of a Congress-backed government, the BJP too did a U turn to join hands with the ‘betrayers’ again. Never mind, the continuing mistrust and the 12-point charter of demands set out by Deve Gowda.

 

What should one say of the Governor Rameshwar Thakur’s role? Suffice it to state that it has been over a week since the BJP-JD(S) coalition in the State paraded 129 MLAs, which is more than half of the 225-member Assembly, at Bangalore’s Raj Bhawan in the hope that he would revoke President's rule and swear-in a BJP-led coalition Government.

 

Nothing of the sort. Instead, of doing the Constitutional right thing of reviving the suspended State Assembly and asking the BJP-JD to prove their majority on the floor of the House, as opined by the Supreme Court in the landmark SR Bommai judgment, Thakur stated that he had to “consult the Centre.” Why? He had to take instructions from his mai-baaps in Delhi on what to do next. Just as his fellow Congressmen Governors Buta Singh and Syed Sibtey Razi had done two years ago in Bihar and Jharkhand. Forgetting, that they too had got a sharp rap from the Apex Court which led to Buta Singh’s ignominious exit.

 

Also, most oddly, thereafter Governor Thakur, sent a ‘statement of facts’ to New Delhi rather than ‘his report’ and recommendation. His reported contention that the BJP-JD(S) formation could lead to “horse-trading of the worst kind,” is as shocking as Buta Singh’s report based on “hearsay” read bazaar gossip. Not only that. He continues to wait for instructions from Delhi. No matter that the jo hukam darbari Thakur is crossing the lakshman rekha of constitutional propriety and violating all norms by his outrageous and unprecedented actions.

 

True, the Centre's brazen vacillation may have been influenced partially by Deve Gowda’s letter of 24 October to Thakur urging dissolution of the Assembly and calling for fresh elections. It could also be because of JD rebel Prakash’s factor or the JD’s new charter of demands to the BJP, which raises a big question mark over the stability of the coalition.

 

Either way it matters little. The issue is not whether Thakur invites the BJP-JD combine to form a Government or dissolves the Assembly for fresh polls. It is all about the role of the Governor, his qualifications and Constitutional obligations and duties. Or, should one say, politicization of this high Constitutional office. Questionably, are they the Centre’s chaprasis? Or, are they the keepers of the people’s faith as heads of their respective States?

 

All seem to have forgotten that the true function of the Governor is not just to represent the Centre but, as the Head of State, serve his people and fight their battle with the Centre and not vice versa. He has to bear in mind the overall national interest, not partisan party interests. He has to be in tune not with the party in power at the Centre, but with his own people.

 

The Constitution empowers him to influence the decisions of an elected Government by giving him the right “to be consulted, to warn and encourage”. His role is overwhelmingly that of a “friend, philosopher and guide” to his Council of Ministers with unrivalled discretionary powers. A lot more than those of the President.

 

As noted by the Sarkaria Commission and endorsed by the Supreme Court, the Governor’s role is that of “a Constitutional sentinel and that of vital link between the Union and the State… Being the holder of an independent Constitutional office, the Governor is not a subordinate or subservient agent of the Union Government.”

 

Tragically, however, successive governments at the Centre have successfully used, abused and debased this high office by reducing Governors to the position of the Centre’s chaprasis nee kathputlis, ever ready to destablise the ship of the State, if so desired by New Delhi. Most have no qualms of conscience in rubbishing it in personal or party interest, barring honourable examples such as Karnataka’s erstwhile Governor Dharam Vira, who refused to take orders even from Indira Gandhi!

 

Clearly, the office of the Governor has been unabashedly politicized over the past two decades. Times out of number, the Governor has acted as a pawn of his political masters. Overlooking the letter and spirit of the Constitution. But none has done what Thakur did: acted as a police inquisitor and openly asserted that he had to “consult” the Centre before making his recommendations

.

Thus the Governors today have become a convenient tool in the hands of the Centre to run Opposition-ruled States by proxy. By playing the I-spy game---petty politicking, gross interference and open partisanship at the Centre’s behest. Even using a minor law and order problem to impose Central rule on the State. Bluntly, make life hell for the Chief Minister and use him as a springboard for returning to active politics.

 

Alas, gone are the days of Nehru, who is now regrettably considered by many, including Congressmen, as obsolete on the ground that times have changed and his was another world! As India’s first Prime Minister, he laid emphasis on the integrity, merit and stature of the Governor. He said: “I think it would be infinitely better if he was not so intimately connected with local politics of the province or with the factions of the province.”

 

Nehru believed that it would be desirable to have as Governor’s “eminent people” who had not taken too great a part in politics. Remember, he handpicked Dr. Zakir Hussain, an eminent educationist, for the Governorship of Bihar and thereafter had him installed as India’s Vice President.

 

Sadly, his daughter Inidra Gandhi changed the rules of the game. Politicians close to her were rewarded with plum postings. She successfully used gubernatorial appointments as bait to get bureaucrats to do at her bidding. For the first time, even a former Chief Election Commissioner and retired intelligence and police officers came to occupy Raj Bhawans.

 

In fact, many of the appointments were so brazen that the Supreme Court was constrained to order in 1979: “The Governor’s office is not subordinate or subservient to the Government of India.  He is not amenable to the directions of the Government of India nor is he accountable to them for the manner in which he carries out his duties. This is an independent Constitutional office which is not subject to the control of the Government of India…”

 

Trust India’s self-serving polity to trash this to the dustbin of history. Be it the Congress, Janata Dal, United Front, NDA and, now the UPA. Sadly, over 60 per cent of the present Governors are active politicians or defeated and discredited netas and the rest ‘pliable’ retired bureaucrats, police officers and Army Generals. Today, the Governor largely functions as a lackey of the Centre, ever ready to destabilize the ship of the State.

 

All political parties lament the decline of the crucial institution of the Governor when out of office. Tragically, however, they merrily misuse and abuse the office for personal and party ends when in office, as did the NDA before the UPA. Not only does this generate bad blood between Lilliputian politicians but, in its wake, denigrates the Constitution and undermines India’s unity and integrity.

 

The harsh truth is that the office of the Governor is in shambles and is no longer playing its key role as envisaged by the founding fathers. It has to be revamped and restored to its old glory with assured tenures. It is the time to rise above politics and appoint neutral non-political Governors. As long as the Centre continues to play petty, partisan politics, India and its unity will be greatly hurt. The Governor must not be reduced to the level of a glorified chaprasi!  ---- INFA

(Copyright, India News & Feature Alliance)                     

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