Who are the people whom the National Democratic Alliance government has picked to inhabit India's Raj Bhavans? Some are retired bureaucrats with no known BJP leanings, but others wear their RSS hearts proudly on their sleeves. The appointments are not just sinecures for retiring and retired party workers - the government has used these to make social and political points as well. Aditi Phadnis takes a look at the Raj Bhavans under NDA
Droupadi Murmu
Odisha
A purely political appointment, it is nevertheless one that is hard to fault. Murmu's name for governorship was announced soon after the verdict in the Jharkhand Assembly elections went in NDA's favour. But instead of appointing a tribal in a state where the majority is held by the tribal community, the party decided to make Raghubar Das, a non-tribal, the chief minister. Possibly worried that tribal people, especially the dominant Santhali community, might have been offended, Murmu was named the governor of Jharkhand.
You might not agree with her politics and might wonder at her knowledge of complicated constitutional procedures, but her political career is nothing short of remarkable. She is neither from a political family, nor married into one. Murmu did a BA and became a junior teacher at the Aurobindo Integral Education and Research Institute in Odisha, in a place called Rairangpur. She then joined the government of Odisha as a junior assistant in the irrigation department.
Not much is known about Murmu's early orientation but she became the councillor and later vice-chairperson of Rairangpur Nagar Panchayat, and also vice-president of BJP's Scheduled Tribes Morcha in Odisha. In 2000, she contested the Legislative Assembly and became a member, winning again for a second time in 2009. In between she became minister of state for transport and commerce, and then fisheries and animal husbandry in the state. The affidavit she furnished when she was contesting the Assembly elections says she has no house, only a small bank balance and some land. She badly wanted to contest the 2004 Lok Sabha election from Mayurbhanj. But pitted against her was the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha's Sudam Marandi, another Santhal and a strong candidate. Her claim was overlooked in favour of her male colleague's. He lost.
Murmu's elevation as governor is BJP's way of paying tribute to the twice disadvantaged: a tribal woman. If governors are to be political appointees, persons like Murmu serve as a beacon.
Tathagata Roy
Tripura
A former member of the Bharatiya Janata Party's national executive, Tathagata Roy has been the chief of the BJP's West Bengal unit - such as it is - and maintains an extremely active Twitter account. On his handle he describes himself thus: "Governor of Tripura. Yes to Uniform Civil Code, No to DOUBLE STANDARDS (Arts 44 & 14 of Constitution). Praised and damned equally. A proud bhakt & swayamsevak (sic)." He is NDA's choice for governor of a state that has had a Marxist at the helm of affairs for five consecutive terms, and fittingly here's what Roy has to say about Marxism: "A dead horse like Marxism can't be flogged back to life. It's not for no reason that USSR folded up and China took Deng's free-enterprise route," adding for good measure that many neurologists believe that Lenin died of syphilis (see Tathagata Roy's twitter handle).
Whatever his political philosophy, Roy was a brilliant student and managed to win the Jagadish Bose National Science Talent Search award as a student. He studied civil engineering at Bengal Engineering College, Shibpur, now renamed Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology. He worked with the Railways and then with the Metro Rail as chief engineer, before taking voluntary retirement in 1990 to join Jadavpur University as a professor. His colleagues credit him with setting up the university's department of construction engineering. Roy also has a law degree from Calcutta University and has argued arbitration cases.
During his tenure with the Metro before he joined BJP, he would, in the early 1980s, often visit the BJP state headquarters to inspect cracks the building had developed because of the metro construction underground. Once he joined Jadavpur University, he grew more involved with BJP and joined the party in the mid-1980s. He is a gentle person, very much of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and BJP, but whatever his political views, is considered a gentleman. However, the general impression is that he is not going to occupy the Raj Bhavan and twiddle his thumbs.
Roy's elder brother, Saugata Roy, is a senior member of the Trinamool Congress. The two don't fight.
Kaptan Singh Solanki
Haryana and Punjab
When violence by the Jats had ebbed, the highly articulate lawyer-spokesman of the Congress, Jaiveer Gill, asked a pertinent question: "If law and order has collapsed in Uttarakhand resulting in the imposition of President's rule, where was the judgement of the honourable governor of Haryana when the state was burning, armouries were being looted and banks attacked? Was that not breakdown of law and order".
Governor of Haryana Kaptan Singh Solanki could not have heard the question. He did not even refer to the Jat agitation in his speech on the opening day of the Budget session of the Haryana Assembly. Of course, the speech was not his to make - it is prepared by the elected government.
Solanki was appointed the governor at a time when BJP was not sure which way the election in Haryana would go. He is not only rooted in RSS ideology, but is also well-versed in realpolitik, having been the Madhya Pradesh BJP general secretary (organisation) in 2003 when the party ousted Digvijaya Singh from power. With the thumping majority that the party got, the governor became relatively irrelevant. But despite that, he was made the party administrator, and later, also given charge of Punjab.
It is now a bizarre situation. Never in the last three or more decades has the same person been the governor of both Punjab and Haryana - that situation was avoided because there are so many conflicts of interest. This was evident when the governor gave one version of the speech in the Punjab Assembly (in Chandigarh) on the Sutlej Yamuna Link Canal and another version, just across the road, in the Haryana Assembly (also in Chandigarh) a week later.
As he addressed the Haryana legislature, the Punjab Assembly in a neighbouring hall within the complex passed a Bill introduced by the Parkash Singh Badal-led Shiromani Akali Dal government to de-notify the land that was acquired for the construction of the SYL canal to carry Haryana's share of the Ravi-Beas water.
This is a totally untenable situation and both states are wondering when it will be corrected.
Ram Naik
Uttar Pradesh
Conventional wisdom has it that politics stops at the door of Raj Bhavan-that incumbents stop being politicians and instead become statesmen when they enter the portals of the Governor's House. But Ram Naik, former petroleum minister, senior BJP leader and governor of Uttar Pradesh where a party in opposition to BJP is in power, is a living testimony to the fact that this need not always be true.
Soon after he was appointed governor, Naik kicked off a controversy when he stopped the national anthem midway while it was being played during the end of the oath-taking function for ministers at the Raj Bhavan and instead administered the pledge of unity to mark the National Integration Day on the birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.
As the anthem was being played, Naik waved at his staff, indicating that it be stopped and even verbally instructed his personnel to do so. The clarification that he had not intended to insult the national anthem came later.
Then, in another first, he released a report card on completing three months as governor, in which he made remarks criticising law and order in Uttar Pradesh. Angered by the governor's action, the Samajwadi Party at a conclave, passed a resolution on the constitutional limitations of governors with Naresh Agarwal, SP general secretary, advising Naik to remain within his constitutional limit as otherwise the party was ready for "hulla bol" (offensive) against him. "The governor should not act like a BJP or RSS worker and work within his constitutional limits," Agarwal said, referring to Naik's controversial decision to host RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat to dinner at the Raj Bhavan.
Naik, however, defended his decision. "I invited several political leaders...RSS leaders came to my house to have food. Before taking oath as the governor, I quit primary membership of BJP. There is no provision of resigning from RSS. One is a swayamsevak as long as one feels to be one. I consider myself a swayamsevak."
All that was last year. The latest is senior UP minister Azam Khan's sarcastic and innuendo-loaded reference to the governor's conduct in holding up Bills amending legislation relating to UP urban bodies. Khan alleged that Raj Bhavan was becoming a sanctuary for tainted mayors. The governor has sought unedited videos of Azam Khan's exact speeches attacking him in the Assembly.
Earlier, Naik had returned five out of nine names forwarded by the state government for nominated members in the Legislative Council, charging they had criminal allegations against them.
With Uttar Pradesh going to the polls in another ten months, relations between the governor and the government are likely to dip to new lows. Controversies will only increase.
Jyoti Prasad Rajkhowa
Arunachal Pradesh
Jyoti Prasad Rajkhowa has strong views. He is not afraid of calling a spade a spade-no matter whom that is inconvenient to.
A 1968-batch IAS officer, Rajkhowa retired as Assam chief secretary in 2004. He was well-known for his criticism of illegal migration from Bangladesh and how the government should stop this before Assam turned into another Pakistan. He has no known political linkages with any party, though his views on illegal migration did earn him a lot of respect from BJP. He is a celebrated and an influential litterateur in Assam. He has done astounding primary source research on the 16th century Assamese saint-reformer, Sankaradeva, and his contemporary Koch general, Chilarai, of the Koch kingdom that extended over western Assam, present-day North Bengal and parts of Bangladesh.
Rajkhowa is considered a disciplinarian. So when dissident Congress leader, Kalikho Pul, pulled the rug from under the Congress's feet in Arunachal Pradesh, Rajkhowa as governor studied the rules carefully before announcing that as the state's governor, he could only ascertain whether a ruling government had majority or not in the House and he needed to call a session of the Assembly.
Disregarding the advice of the council of ministers, he advanced by one month, a meeting of the Assembly. In this, he used his sense of judgement - something that was questioned closely when the matter came to the Supreme Court. But Rajkhowa had done his homework well. The Supreme Court, a few days after ordering the Arunachal Pradesh governor to respond why he recommended President's rule in the sensitive border state, recalled the order, saying it made a "mistake" by not realising that governors have "complete immunity" and are not answerable to courts for acts done in their official capacity.
However, deposed chief minister Nabam Tuki can be excused for thinking Rajkhowa had the knives out for him. In a letter last year, Rajkhowa urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to reconsider the decision to set up a greenfield airport in the state in view of the "high cost", saying upgrade of an airport in nearby Assam would be more viable. Obviously, this made the Arunachali people, who have a boundary dispute with Assam and view Assamese with deep suspicion, see red. What the governor did not say was that there was a racket in payment of compensation for land at Hollongi in which the Tuki government might be involved.
All of this has not endeared him to Arunachal Pradesh, although he claims he is acting without fear or favour, in the interest of the people of Arunachal Pradesh. Further interventions by Rajkhowa need to be watched.
