New Delhi, Jun 17 (TNN): The NDA government has started nudging seven Congress-appointed governors to quit in what can escalate political tensions.
Sources in the government said Union home secretary Anil Goswami called up seven governors and suggested that they put in their papers. These are M K Narayanan in West Bengal, Sheila Dikshit in Kerala, Margaret Alva in Rajasthan, Kamla Beniwal in Gujarat, BL Joshi in UP, K Sankaranarayanan in Maharashtra and Devendra Konwar in Tripura.
The development can lead to a protracted political battle and is sure to end up in court. At least one of the governors is learnt to have turned down the Centre's suggestion saying the government should convey it to her in writing if it wants her to quit before her term runs out.
The NDA government is following the example set by the UPA government which, after coming to power in 2004, got rid of BJP appointees in Raj Bhavans, including Vishnukant Shastri (UP), Kailashpati Mishra (Gujarat), Babu Parmananad (Haryana) and Kedarnath Sahni (Goa).
The decision led to a major showdown between NDA and UPA. So much so that BJP MP B P Singhal went to Supreme Court the same year, challenging the removal. The court, in its May 2010 order, held that governors were not employees of the Union government to warrant removal on the ground of loss of "confidence" in them.
However, the judgment had provided an important exception, which now allows the BJP government to build a file containing the reasons for a governor's removal prior to the council of ministers headed by the PM making such a recommendation to the President. Though the President can return the file, he must sign the recommendation in the event of Cabinet reiterating its decision.
The government seems determined to go the whole hog and does not see the requirement laid down by the SC as an impediment. Sources said the Cabinet may make recommendations seeking the removal of individual governors. In fact, the Centre is learnt to have asked the Maharashtra governor not to go ahead with nominations against vacancies in the state legislative council.
"We have enough reasons to seek their removal," said a senior home ministry functionary who is involved in the exercise.
Just after taking over, NDA had divided governors into three categories -- Congress nominees whose tenure was about to be over, members of the former ruling party who had a major portion of their tenure left, and bureaucrats and retired generals. Of these, the second category was rated as most vulnerable to any purge plan. While most of those on the list indeed belong to the club, there are others too. Beniwal's term is about to be over, while Narayanan served as chief of IB and NSA.