President Pranab Mukherjee’s insistence that governors should not be just figure heads will become a reality once the Centre engaged them in security issues of the states where they are posted.
Wrapping up the 46th conference of governors, Mukherjee said Home Minister Rajnath Singh has come up with a proposal in this regard.
Welcoming the proposal, the President requested him to consider convening separate meetings with groups of governors having similar problems like the North-Eastern states, coastal states, states with international borders and Maoist-affected states.
Mukherjee also suggested that, similarly, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar may consider involving the governors of the states that have an international border for a focused interaction on security issues. In his concluding remarks, the President said governors and lieutenant governors have an important role to play in making cooperative federalism a reality.
“They are all people with great experience in public life. They occupy an important space in our constitutional structure. They also function as a sentinel of the Constitution and a live link with the Union. It is expected from them to make a positive contribution in strengthening the partnership between the Centre and the states,” Mukherjee was quoted as saying in a press release issued by Rashtrapati Bhavan.
The President said the authority that governors and lieutenant governors exercise was based on a moral premise and “as long as the exercise of that authority is confined to the boundaries of the Constitution”, he did not see the possibility of any diminution of their role.
