Letter to the Readers, Mainstream, April 12, 2025

Letter to the Readers, Mainstream

Over the past years there have been a multiple instances of long standoffs between opposition ruled states and the State Governors. The opposition parties in India had come to accuse the central Government in Delhi of trying to use the constitutional position of the Governor to subvert governmental affairs from a back door and block legislation adopted by state assemblies. Under the Modi Govt some of the Governors got their job because they were from the RSS —the ideological mothership of the BJP or were retired former officials who were yes men to serve the goals of the BJP across India, particularly so in opposition ruled states. We saw repeated tensions in Kerala between Governor Arif Mohammed Khan and the Left Front Govt, with multiples laws passed by the assembly not getting assent of the Governor. A similar situation prevailed in West Bengal in days when Governor Dhanker had endless disagreements with the TMC govt. In 2018 Jammu & Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik unexpectedly dissolved the state legislative assembly just as there were attempts forge a coalition Govt. In 2019 Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari invited the BJP to form the state Govt in the face of a hung state assembly. Tamil Nadu’s Governor R N Ravi was in three year long standoff with the state Govt, and had repeatedly withheld the approval of bills approved by the TN assembly. The April 8, 2025 order by the Supreme Court of India [1] —The State of Tamil Nadu…Petitioner(s) versus The Governor of Tamil Nadu & Anr…Respondent(s) [Civil Original Jurisdiction: Writ Petition (Civil) No. 1239 of 2023], must be welcomed for taking the Tamil Nadu Governor to task for sitting over bills approved by the legislature and setting time limits within which the Governor should approve legislation to be forwarded to the President. The court order restores a balance by calling out arbitrary use powers of the Governor representing the central Govt. over democratically elected state Governments and provides vital constitutional guidance for the functioning of our federal system.
April 12, 2025 —HK