Governors' Off-the-Cuff Remarks Lower Majesty of Office

During the Constituent Assembly debate on the ‘position of the Governor’, most speakers were unanimous on one point: It is an ornamental post. However, developments in the last few years have shown that those holding this ‘decorative position’ have become a thorn in the flesh of state governments, both by their pronouncements and actions.    

It is worth recalling what Baba Saheb Ambedkar said about the ‘would-be Governors’ while participating in the debate on whether they should be elected or nominated. Stating that the two alternatives hardly make any difference, he said what mattered was their personality: “Is he the right sort of person by his status, by his character, by his education, by his position in the public to fill in a post of Governor?” 

Unfortunately, the appointment of Governors, more often than not, has proved to be a negation of Dr. Ambedkar’s perception.

The status, character, education and position of the persons sent as Governors and Lieutenant Governors to States and Union Territories have been sidelined, and the prime consideration is allegiance to the ruling party.

The proof of the pudding is in eating. A background check of the present-day Governors is like looking for the former office-bearers of the ruling party or former members of its legislative wing. This is at odds with what members of the Constituent Assembly bargained for. 

Let us start with Himachal Pradesh Governor Shiv Pratap Shukla’s suggestion to use the Devanagari script for all Indian languages. Inaugurating a national seminar recently, he said that if all Indian languages were written in the Devanagari script, mutual comprehension would be easier. He seems to have forgotten that the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution of India protects and promotes the official languages – 22 languages have been recognized and given official status. The core of a language is its script, and destroying it is equivalent to obliterating the language itself. Script is the visual representation of a language, and changing it is the ‘ultimate injustice’ to its speakers. 

The irrepressible Tamil Nadu Governor R.N. Ravi sparked a row after he had asked students to chant Jai Shri Ram while addressing an event at an engineering college in Madurai. “On this day, let us pay tribute to the one (Kambar, the ancient poet who wrote Kamba Ramayanam) who was a great devotee of Shri Ram. I would say and you would say Jai Shri Ram," he said as students were heard repeating the chant. It seems the Governor forgot that he was addressing students, and not a religious function. 

Educational institutions are the cradle of teaching constitutional values, of which secularism is one of the guiding principles. By asking students to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’ the Governor thumbed his nose at this very principle.

A couple of months back, yet another Governor, Acharya Devvrat of Gujarat, made an alarming statement during a convocation speech at Veer Narmad South Gujarat University in Surat. “There was no unity among us, therefore, foreign invaders, including Parsis, Jews came to loot the country. Nation-building is done by the bravery of brave men, the chastity of brave mothers, and sanctified children,” the Governor had stated.

These remarks, delivered at an official academic event, deeply hurt and offended the Parsi community. It appears that the Governor has little knowledge about the community, historically recognised for its peaceful settlement in India and its immense contributions to the various fields in the country's development.

The Governor had no reason to denigrate a community that is at the forefront of philanthropical contributions as looters. The Governor’s office later came out with a statement stating that it was a “slip of the tongue.” But by then, irredeemable damage had been done by the constitutional authority.

A couple of years back, Bhagat Singh Koshyari, then Governor of Maharashtra, kicked up controversy with a provocative statement. “If Gujaratis and Rajasthanis are removed from Maharashtra, especially Mumbai and Thane, no money would be left here,” he had said, without any rhyme or reason.

The Governor, the custodian of the Constitution in the State, who is supposed to promote brotherhood through ‘fraternity,’ which is enshrined in the Preamble and further emphasized in Article 51A(e) as a fundamental duty of every citizen, himself lit the spark for divisiveness among communities.

Acharya Devvrat, Governor of Gujarat

Tathagata Roy, Governor of Tripura and Meghalaya during the first term of the Modi Government, made an atrocious statement in January 2016 when he bragged that the bodies of the terrorists killed in the Pathankot attack should be wrapped in pigskin. “I seriously suggest Russian treatment of terrorists' carcasses. Wrap them in pigskin, bury them face down in pig excreta. No chance of Houris,” he had said on Twitter. 

Mr. Roy, known for making highly communal statements, had once tweeted that Syama Prasad Mukherjee, who had founded the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, had said in his diary that “the Hindu-Muslim problem won’t be solved without a Civil War”. However, following an outcry on the internet, he withdrew his tongue-in-cheek remark. 

The latest in this series of Governors’ unbecoming and incongruous pronouncements and actions comes from Kerala where Governor Rajendra Arlekar, on two occasions in the last couple of weeks, offered floral tributes to the portrait of saffron flag-holding Bharat Mata astride a lion, at official government functions.

In the first instance, the State Agriculture Department, the host of the official function on World Environment Day on June 5, took umbrage at this ‘saffronisation’ of a State Government function by the Raj Bhawan, dissociated from it and held a different function.

In the second instance, barely a week later, at the Scouts and Guides award ceremony, Mr. Arlekar did it again; the Kerala Education Minister, present on the dais, left the function in a huff, protesting against the Governor taking a leaf out of the Hindutva book.

It is common knowledge that the RSS uses the image of Bharat Mata holding a saffron flag to promote Hindu nationalist ideology. But at official government functions, this portrait has never been in use. Moreover, the map in the background includes India along with Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Sri Lanka which exhibits expansionist and imperialist attitude.  

Mr. Narlekar is not new to controversies. His deceptive remark, while he was the Governor of Bihar, that the British left India because of armed struggle and not due to Satyagraha had drawn widespread criticism and condemnation from many quarters. His remarks were seen as an affront to the lakhs of freedom fighters who stood behind Mahatma Gandhi and other leaders, and embarked on a peaceful struggle to dethrone the British.

Governors not agents of Centre

During British rule, Provincial Governors were the agents of the crown, functioning under the supervision of the Governor General. True to their post, they functioned as the agents of the British crown, and their allegiance was to none but the crown. But Governors in independent India are no more the agents of the ruling party at the Centre; they have to act as per the advice of the Council of Ministers of the State. 

The present sorry state of affairs is the result of ignoring what the founders of the Constitution envisaged. They sought to create a balance between the Centre and the States, with the Governor playing a crucial role in maintaining this equilibrium. Unfortunately, they are working as agents of the Centre and the ruling party to execute their political agenda.