Governors oppose to support BJP, opine political analysts

CHENNAI: Nearly a week after Governor RN Ravi spoke on the October 23 car blast in a private function in Coimbatore and questioned the delay on the part of the Tamil Nadu government in handing over the case to the NIA, Raj Bhavan posted the video on its official twitter handle on Sunday.

This comes close on the heels of the DMK-led Secular Progressive Alliance’s clarion call to the Centre to recall the Governor. They were waiting for the appointment of President Droupadi Murmu to submit a memorandum in this regard.

In these circumstances, the Raj Bhavan’s social media post early on Sunday posed two questions, - What prompted the Raj Bhavan to post the Governor’s speech after 9 days? What message does it carry forward in the ongoing confrontation between the state government and the Government?

Political critics opined that the Governor and his office stick to their role and execute it to please their political masters. The social media post of the Raj Bhavan is aimed to keep up the ante against the ruling DMK and exploit the situation to help BJP’s incursion in the state. They enhance the aggressive politics of the regional-level BJP leaders and part of BJP’s multi-pronged attacks on the state government.

“Governors’ offices in non-BJP ruling states have turned into BJP’s headquarters. The new breed of Governors posted in south India, excluding Karnataka, are functioning in the same pattern and posing challenges to the ruling government,” retired Justice K Chandru told DT Next.

He also hinted that Telangana Governor and Lt Governor of Puducherry Tamilisai Soundararajan has also joined the course of actions along with her counterpart in TN to put the state government in bad light.

After the BJP came to power for the third time, the BJP leadership at the national level used Governors as a tool to “trouble and destabilise” the government in non-BJP ruled states.They are “aggressive” unlike their counterparts in BJP-ruled states.

They start giving troubles by intervening in administration of universities, not giving assent to bills passed by the state government and giving discourses in different places expressing their ideology, he said, adding, “These activities are aimed at embarrassing the state governments. Now, it crystallised to the extent the ruling party and its allies demanded a recall of the Governor. They are mere arrows and there is no point in blaming them.”

Echoing the same, political critic Prof Ramu Manivannan said Raj Bhavan has turned into an extension centre of BJP office in non-BJP ruled states, while the Governor is acting like a leader of the opposition to provoke the state government.

“The TN Governor is exercising all his powers to confront the state government like the Governors of Kerala, Maharashtra and West Bengal. It is part of a larger agenda. The Governors in these states are competing among themselves to show their loyalty (to their master), hoping to get plumb posts,” he said and pointed out to the elevation of former West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankar as vice-president of the nation for giving “much trouble to WB government.”

He also pointed out the silence of the Governor in Gujarat regarding the collapse of cable wire bridge in Morbi, which claimed more than 130 lives and other BJP-ruled states.

Voices for and against

Former minister and senior AIADMK leader CVe Shanmugam, while responding to the question, said the Governor was a Constitutional post and head of the government. Hence, it was nothing wrong on his part to express his views on the state government. On the other hand, DMK deputy general secretary and MP Kanimozhi criticised the Governor for acting beyond his Constitutional positions.