The tussle between the Congress-appointed governors and the Centre appears to be on the rise with only Uttar Pradesh’s BL Joshi putting in his papers on Tuesday. The five others opted not to react.
Strains of tension were apparent during the day when Union home minister Rajnath Singh reportedly saying if he were in their [governor’s] place, he would have resign.
The fight between the Congress and the BJP is not likely to end any time soon. Two to three of the six governors have already sought appointments with President Pranab Mukherjee.
Margaret Alva, Rajasthan governor whose name figures in the list, on Tuesday met PM Narendra Modi at his residence.
Assam governor JB Patnaik and Karnataka governor HR Bhardwaj, who met president Mukherjee, denied speculation they were quitting.”No one asked me for it and I won’t resign,” Bhardwaj said.
Kerala governor Sheila Dikshit declined to comment on media reports. “I can’t react to rumours,” she said.
Incidentally, it was BP Singhal, BJP MP, who had approached the apex Court in 2004 against the Congress’ decision to remove governors appointed during NDA’s tenure.
On May 7, 2010, the Supreme Court judgment in this case clearly said though the president can remove governors any time without assigning any reason and without giving any reason to show cause, the power under Article 156 (1) cannot be exercised in an arbitrary, capricious or unreasonable manner.
It means a governor cannot be removed on grounds that he is out of sync with the ideologies and policies of the Union government or the party in power at the Centre.
The order further says: “Nor can he be removed on the ground that the Union government has lost confidence in him. It follows, therefore, that a change in government at the Centre is not a ground for removal of governors holding office to make way for others favoured by the new government.”
The judgment give power to a governor to call the shots and take legal recourse of limited judicial review that can put the central government in a fix.
But it could be a tough call for the governors of West Bengal and Goa— MK Narayanan and BV Wanchoo.
After a long exchange of letters with the law ministry on the technicalities of questioning their role in the Augusta Westland VVIP chopper deal, the CBI said there were no legal obstacles and it would question the governors soon.
If the battle continue, it may be difficult for the BJP to give plum postings to its senior or disgruntled leaders like Lalji Tandon, Kalyan Singh, Kailash Joshi, Balram Das Tandon, Yashwant Sinha, KC Nath Tripathi, and VK Malhotra, many of whom decided not to fight elections.