All new governors have close RSS links
By Harihar Swarup
Years back Sarkaria Commission on centre-state relations had recommended that governors should be eminent persons outside the political realm rather than active political workers. But reverse had happened; some Governors in the past played a partisan role during moments of political instability, some have used Raj Bhavans for political ends. The situation went on deteriorating with change of governments at the centre and reached this pitiable stage. Congress could have upheld the dignity of gubernatorial office but it acted in grossly partisan manner; the situation deteriorated from Indira Gandhi’s time and became from bad to worse. The Governors became tools in the hands of ruling party at the Centre.
The general practice till a few years back was that the Union Government informed the Chief Minister that a certain person is being appointed as the Governor of the State but, it appears, this practice has also been given a go by.
The recommendation of the Sarkaria Commission, that the Vice President of India and the Speaker of the Lok Sabha should be consulted by the Prime Minister in selection of Governor, has been ignored by the party in power at the centre; be it the Congress or the BJP. Such consultation, the Commission felt, will greatly enhance the credibility of the selection process.
The Commission felt that the Chief Minister should be consulted before appointing the Governor. For proper working of the Parliamentary system there has to be a personal rapport between the Governor and the Chief Minister. The main purpose of consulting the Chief Minister is to ascertain his objections, if any, to the proposed appointment. The practice was followed in the initials years but not adhered to later.
The general practice has been that the Union Government informs the Chief Minister that a certain person is being appointed as the Governor of the State but lately this practice has also been given up.
In India’s multi-party polity, the role of Governors under the Constitution has been a sensitive aspect of Centre-State relations. Instead of taking the role of governors seriously, almost all recommendations of the Sarkaria Commission have been kept in cold storage and Raj Bhavans have become rehabilitation homes for rejected politicians.
The BJP had golden opportunity to demonstrate its democratic credentials while appointing new governors. Regrettably, with a remarkable sense of conformity with the spoils system put in place with the Congress, the BJP also treated gubernatorial posts as a retirement benefit for its veterans.
All the five Governors appointed so far have been actively associated with the BJP, among them were leaders, who have been denied ticket in last Lok Sabha election and those who had lost elections. The youngest of five is 79 and the oldest 87.
Eighty-year-old Kesrinath Tripathi, appointed Governor of West Bengal, was a BJP MLA four times from Allahabad (South) and UP Assembly Speaker three times. He had expressed disappointment when the ticket to the Allahabad Lok Sabha seat was given to Shyama Charan Gupta. The BJP veteran has never been a Lok Sabha member. An RSS volunteer at the age of 12 and jailed in connection with the Ram Janmabhoomi agitation, Tripathi was first elected an MLA on the Janata Party ticket in 1977 from Jhunsi, Allahabad, and made Finance Minister.
Relegated to background since he lost Lok Sabha elections in 2009, Ram Naik, 80, is the new Governor of the sensitive state of Uttar Pradesh. He has been active in various movements. Part of All India Discipline Committee of the BJP, Naik has concentrated for over five decades on his pet issues; local trains in Mumbai and voters’ registration. A former union minister of petroleum, Naik is said to have been high in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s list for the post of Governor of UP. An expert on constitutional affairs and committed to the RSS ideology, Naik has been an MLA two times and an MP five times.
Eighty-six-year old Balramji Dass Tandon has been appointed governor of Chhattisgarh after being out of electoral politics for 17 years. After his last poll in 1997, he was Chairman of the BJP’s campaign committee in Punjab during Lok Sabha elections in 2009 and 2014. An RSS member since 1946, Tandon has been an MLA six times starting 1957.
A party foot-soldier, O P Kohli, gets the plum post of Gujarat Governor as a reward of his decades of work in the BJP. His last key role came in 2009, when the BJP had lost to the Congress for the third time in a row in Delhi and he was made state BJP President. Kohli has been the Delhi unit President from 1991 to 1995. Affiliated to the BJP since his student days, he served as ABVP chief before becoming a teacher in Delhi University. He was nominated to the Rajya Sabha between 1994 and 2000. He is 78.
Eighty-three-year-old PB Acharya, appointed governor of Nagaland is a low-profile leader of the BJP who has spent his entire political career in organizational work, essentially in north-eastern states. Till his appointment as governor he, he was working among north-eastern tribals as the head of the party’s tribal cell in a region that remains a challenge to the BJP. He has learnt local languages in almost four decades spent in north-east. Acharya never ventured into electoral politics. He is said to be close to Modi, has his roots in BJP student wing- the ABVP, and has worked closely with the RSS. (IPA Service)