It is most unfortunate that the governors are denigrating their office by their conduct
The stand-off between the Centre and the three southern States of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana took a new turn early this week with P S Sreedharan Pillai, Governor of Goa jumping into the fray by indirectly admonishing his Kerala counterpart Arif Mohammed Khan for breaching the Lakshman Rekha. Arif Mohammed Khan during the last two years spent a staggering 223 days outside Kerala making him the Non-Resident Governor. He is waging a legal battle against the CPI(M)-led Government for its impropriety over the appointment of vice-chancellors and senior faculty members to the universities in the State. The Governor, instead of playing the role of a match referee, surges ahead with the ball and starts firing shots at the Marxists’ goalpost.
Neighbouring Tamil Nadu is witnessing a similar scenario as the Governor, a highly venerated former Indian Police Service officer, returned/kept in abeyance many Bills passed by the DMK Government. The Dravidians had the shock of their lives when the Governor described the Aryan-Dravidian theory as bunkum because this was the only raison d'etre for the DMK’s existence. The party reacted most violently by lampooning the Governor. Its senior leaders sang in unison that a sheep does not need a beard and similarly the State does not require a Governor. The party forgot the fact that it was in power at the Centre for almost 15 years and could have forced the then governments to do away with the post of Governors. The Sarkaria Commission appointed by the Indira Gandhi regime had termed the then Tamil Nadu Chief Minister as the epitome of scientific corruption.R N Ravi is not a run-of-the-mill Governor, unlike Arif Mohammed Khan or Pillai. The last named was the Kerala BJP chief and has not won even a panchayat election. The Telangana Governor too was a former chief of Tamil Nadu BJP and occupies the Hyderabad Raj Bhavan only because of the blessings of Sangh Parivar. It is commendable that Pillai has come out in the open lambasting Khan though it should be seen as the former’s far-sightedness to ensure his survivability in the post-2024 landscape of the country. It is time the policymakers held a review on the relevance of Governors and their roles. The Governors, whether recommended by Sangh Parivar or Congress should get the respect due to them. Otherwise, the best thing to do is to shut down the Raj Bhavans which would save the exchequer of crores every year.