Articles
Appointment of Governors
Dt: 19/6/14
Appointment of Governors
Dr T.H.Chowdary*
The Congress party and later the UPA led by Sonia Maino Gandhi have trivialised the institution of Governors. Governors have mostly a ceremonial role but also have the privilege of whom to call upon to from a ministry as well as withhold consent to any bill passed by the state legislature and nominate eminent persons to the States’ Legislative Councils. They also have a say in regard to the appointment of Vice Chancellors of Universities and Members of the Public Service Commission of the State. An eminent person, a scholar, a great diplomat, a historian and former Justices of the High Courts or Supreme Court , a great General of the Armed Forces ought to be Governors.
2. The Governor is also the Chancellor of all the Universities in the state with the greatly deteriorate standards in our universities, the governor if he is an intellectual and a distinguished person can play a very important role in continuously improving the educational standards and discipline and teaching in the universities. When Kulapati K.M. Munshi was the Governor of UP, he used to visit the universities, hold periodical conferences of the VCs and saw that discipline and standards of teachings and researches were improved. He wrote a message , “My Testament on Education”.
3. The governor can be a great counsellor to his Chief Minister and to the senior officers especially concerned with law and order and finances and education.
4. It is unfortunate that the Congress party has been appointing defeated Congress men, disgraced ministers and flatterers and psychophants of the I-Command as governors. The current governors in Gujarat, Karnataka and Kerala are a disgrace to the institution of governors. A former Congress Chief Minister man, later governor of Andhra Pradesh became the Home Minister in the UPA- II government. A disgraced and incompetent Congress Home Minister was appointed as the governor of Punjab.
5. It appears that the NDA is contemplating to appoint aged BJP leaders who were Chief Ministers and central Ministers in their time, as governors . This amounts to repetition of the wrong acts of the Congress party. A party with a difference as it wants to be known, shall not repeat such evil practices. Governors must be distinguished people known for their integrity, competence, erudition and public regard for their work in their profession.
6. It may be better that while the Home Ministry proposes a panel of three people as a governor of a state a collegium comprising of three Retried Judges of the Supreme Court and two eminent Bharata Ratna/ Padma Vibhushan like Dr APJ Kalam maybe constituted by the President for a period of five years at a time. The public should also be given a chance to send their objections . The collegium may take into consideration the past of the persons in a Panel and the public comments and recommend one person’s name to the President for appointment as a Governor. In the early years of our Independence the Prime Minister used to informally consult the Chief Minister of the concerned state in regard to the person he intends to appoint as the governor. That is also an alternative to the idea of a collegium. But if we have Prime Ministers who are rubber stamps of an I-Command of a party then this would not work.
7. In no case shall an active politician like ministers, arty presidents and general secretaries should be considered for governorship. Such persons can be considered only if they have had a break from politics for five years. (589 words)
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