Lakshmana Venkat Kuchi

In the overall interests of democracy, the elected government and the nominated governor from the centre ought to work in tandem for the progress of the state and in the best interests of the people of the state. 

But this is often practised more in the breach of this constitutional nicety and requirement, especially in opposition-ruled states, where the governors have seemingly assumed aggressive postures and interfered with the functioning of the government on one or another pretext. Sometimes it is overenthusiastic overreach, on issues of law and order that is the exclusive preserve of the state government.

Say in Telangana or West Bengal or Tamil Nadu, all ruled by non-BJP parties – the governors have been holding up bills passed by the state Assembly and taking keen interest and interfering in governance issues in one way or the other. In Tamil Nadu, governor RN Ravi has been having differences with the DMK government, and in fact, had refused to read the speech prepared by the government in his address to the Assembly. The governor had walked out when the state government hit out with a resolution against him.

Now, Chief Minister MK Stalin moved yet another resolution against the governor on Monday after the Constitutional authority stoked controversy with his remarks over bills withheld by him. It was his comment that forced the Chief Minister to ask the centre and the president to set firm rules for bills passed by the Assembly. 

Incidentally, the governor caused damage with his comments that the bills withheld meant they were dead. Governor RN Rabi in interaction with civil service aspirants said that if a Governor withholds assent to a bill passed by the Assembly, it means the bill is dead.

The state government hit back in the Assembly by moving another resolution seeking to curb the powers of the governor. Chief Minister Stalin moved the resolution that sought a specific time frame for the governor to give assent to bills passed by the Assembly. Stalin said that the governor had created a situation by acting against the Constitution, with the mindset of a political party. 

“The Governor indefinitely withholding bills is against the welfare of the people of Tamil Nadu. His controversial comments belittle the dignity of the house and undermine the legislature’s supremacy in parliamentary democracy,” said Stalin.

The resolution moved by Stalin and passed by the house read, “In order to establish the legislative power of the Legislative Assembly Tamil Nadu and make the governor refrain from continuing to act against the interests of the people of the state, and thereby tarnishing the principles of democracy and sovereignty of the Legislative Assembly, the house unanimously insists that the union government and the President of India should immediately issue appropriate instructions to the governor to provide assent to the bills passed by Assembly within a specific period.”

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Incidentally, the Tamil Nadu government’s resolution against the governor came on a day when he finally gave assent to the anti-gambling bill, that prevents advertising and any form of promotion of online gambling or online games of chance and violators to be punished with a jail term and or a fine. This bill was pending with the governor for six months. He had returned the bill with some queries, which the state government saw as a confrontational move. The state government passed the bill the second time and sent it back to the governor. 

But this is not the end of the tussle between the state government and the governor as he is holding up several important bills that were passed by the Assembly. At the last count, there were some 20 bills passed by the state government on which the governor is sitting. There is among them a bill that seeks to remove the governor as the chancellor of state universities. 

In another move that can embarrass the governor, the state finance minister said that the Raj Bhavan spent funds in violation of the financial code and added that such violations would be prevented. Promising action, state finance minister PT Thiagarajan said that new guidelines will be introduced.

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“A perusal of bills received from the Raj Bhavan from September 2021 indicates that discretionary funds were being spent in violation of the Financial Code.”

The DMK and its allies have dubbed the Governor “an agent of the RSS and BJP” and they accuse him of acting as a “stumbling block to the state’s development”.

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