Remain vigilant on encroachment of state govts' rights: CPI(M)
At a time Governor's role is under scanner, the CPI(M) has asked Opposition-ruled states to remain vigilant in checking any encroachment on the rights of the elected state government and the legislature, as there is scope for any reforms under the Narendra Modi government on the role of Raj Bhavans.
In an editorial in its mouthpiece 'People's Democracy', it also said the state legislatures can amend the concerned laws and statutes, like the University Acts, to ensure that the Governor does not exceed the norms laid out.
The remarks came as the CPI(M)-led government in Kerala wrote to the Centre amendments to the constitution to give powers to the state governments in the appointment or recall of Governors.
The Governors' appointments have been "done in a brazen fashion to serve the needs" of the BJP after the Modi government came to power in 2014, the CPI(M) said. "Some of the Governors have an RSS background and others are politicians who are all the more compliant to the Centre's wishes in order to be in the good books" of the BJP, it said.
"The question is not some misstep by a particular Governor or another. There is a deeper malaise. The present Constitutional provision regarding appointment of the governor makes that person a nominee of the central government. This inevitably makes the post of the Governor purely as a representative of the centre," it said.
As long as the appointing authority is the Centre, it said, the proposals to select Governors who have an eminent record in public service, or, non-politicians have no meaning. In fact, it said experience shows that having a non-politician like a retired bureaucrat, in many cases, has been worse since a retired bureaucrat is totally beholden to the centre for his sinecure.
That is why the Srinagar Conclave of opposition parties on Centre-State relations held in 1983 had suggested that the governor should be appointed by the president on the basis of the panel forwarded by the state government concerned, the editorial recalled.
There is "no scope" under Modi government "for any reform in the process of appointment of the Governor and his functions. "What can be done is for the opposition state governments to be vigilant in checking any encroachment on the rights of the elected state government and the legislature," it said.
On Governors, the CPI(M) cited the instance of Kerala's Arif Mohammad Khan taking "egregious positions which do not conform to the Constitutional norms" -- Khan had initially refused to sign on to the address to the Assembly but relented at the last stage. It also referred to Khan's stand on appointment of Vice Chancellors as "controversial".
"The reappointment of the vice chancellor of the Kannur University, an order he had signed and later expressed some misgivings about, has now been cleared by the Kerala High Court as valid," it said.
The editorial said that Governors in other non-BJP ruled states were also "acting brazenly and in a partisan fashion" and referred to West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar, who regularly tweets against Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and the state government. He has sought to give directions to officials over the heads of the elected state government, it said.
In Maharashtra, the governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari has sat over the recommendations for twelve nominees to the state legislative council proposed by the state government.
Koshiyari has sought to deal with the Vice Chancellors on his own accord utilising his status of Chancellor, the CPI(M) said adding Tamil Nadu Governor R N Ravi has also been directly dealing with Vice Chancellors and had returned the legislation on NEET passed unanimously by the Assembly.
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