Dismissal of
an NRI Governor!
Non-Resident Indian- NRI! A Governor is never an NRI. But for one
Governor, the meaning of this had become ‘The Governor not living in her state’
and this proved to be the main reason for that Governor’s dismissal. This NRI
Governor is the dismissed Governor of Mizoram Smt. Kamla Beniwal.
Chance to
Mend Ways
The dismissal of Beniwal two months before her
term was to expire has created a controversy. The Congress has alleged that
Prime Minister Narendra Modi dismissed Kamla Beniwal to take his personal
revenge. Beniwal had been first appointed the Governor of Gujarat by the UPA
Government. When she was at Gandhinagar’s Raj Bhawan, she had implemented a
one-point-programme of creating constant obstacles in the working of the Modi
Government. Smt. Beniwal should have resigned the moment the Modi-led BJP
Government came at the Centre. If Modi had wanted to take an act of revenge, he
could have immediately dismissed Beniwal. He did not do that. The Central
Government transferred her to Mizoram. This was because, she had created some
serious obstacles in the working of the democratically-elected Government of
Gujarat. It had become necessary to send Smt. Beniwal outside the state to
remove those obstacles. The Central Government had given a communication to
some Governors to resign. Smt. Beniwal was not among them. She was only
transferred without being told to resign. Beniwal had got a chance to improve
her working style (“mend her ways’’-the translator will say). But she started
repeating Gujarat the moment she went to Mizoram. By doing so, she brought her
own dismissal on herself.
Repeating Gujarat
If the Governor has to go out of his state for
even one day, he has to take permission of the President. Kamla Beniwal had
violated this rule from the time she went to Gujarat itself. She used to take
the state government’s plane and go to her home state- Rajasthan- and stay for
15 days in Jaipur. In Mizoram, she started doing the same thing from day one. She
went to Mizoram to take Oath as Governor of the new state and returned to
Jaipur the very next day after taking Oath. She was in Jaipur for 18 to 20 days
of her month-long tenure as Governor of Mizoram. In the past, there have been
allegations of partisanship on Governors. There have also been allegations of
corruption on some Governors. But Kamla Beniwal proved to be the first Governor
to have allegations of leaving her state and living in a different state, and
this reason proved to be the primary reason for her dismissal. [The translator
states here that there were other issues as well, such as alleged cases of land
grab in Rajasthan and misuse of government machinery, but this act of living
outside the State has been missed totally by the media].
Another Governor’s Example
It is regarded that the post of
Governor is only an ornamental post, it has no work. A personality to
contradict this thought is the new Governor of Uttar Pradesh, Ram Naik. Naik
has been given additional charge as Governor of Rajasthan. Naik was in Delhi
for a few hours while going to Jaipur to take charge of this additional
responsibility. The author met Naik on Friday (8th August) morning
at Jodhpur House. In this hour-long interaction, Naik told of his experiences
of Lucknow. The building of Raj Bhawan, Lucknow is 200 years old. But, it is
very strong. There are 300-350 workers in Raj Bhawan and everything, from
vegetables to milk-made items are made in the Raj Bhawan. There are 10 cows in
the Raj Bhawan for the milk-made items. You may be feeling a little out-of-sort
after leaving active politics for Raj Bhawan- on being asked this, Naik’s
answer was that on the 1st floor of the Raj Bhawan is the
arrangement for residence, and on the ground floor is the office. I enter the
office at exactly 10 AM. Till 1 O Clock I finish work in the office. Then again
I am at the office from 2 to 5 in the afternoon. Two examples were heard from
Naik on how a Governor can stay active.
Kargil Day
There was no Government function
organized in Lucknow on occasion of Kargil Day. Naik asked the local Army
authorities about it. He was told that there is a big centre of the Army in
Lucknow. One function of the Kargil Day was planned at this centre. But, it was
not public. The moment the Governor expressed his desire to attend the
function, a big function of the Kargil Day was held.
Tilak Death
Anniversary
The second function was of Lokmanya
Tilak’s death anniversary. After the Governor Ram Naik told ‘I will like to
garland a statue of Lokmanya Tilak in Lucknow, if such a statue is here in
Lucknow’, search started for a statue of Lokmanya Tilak in Lucknow. After
coming to know that there is an image of Tilak at a place in the city, Naik
went and garlanded it and paid his tributes.
One
comparison
Another comparison can be done of Ram
Naik and Kamla Beniwal. There is another major allegation on Beniwal, that of
misuse of the plane of the Gujarat government. A Governor has the right to use
the state government’s plane. Beniwal did not make tremendous use of this
right, but tremendous misuse. While in Gujarat, she used the government plane
on an average of around 50 times an year. On the other hand, when Ram Naik came
to Delhi to go to Jaipur, he came by a normal plane. In this plane were three
ministers of Akhilesh Yadav’s Government. Before the plane left Lucknow, all
these 3 Ministers went and asked Ram Naik how he was in the plane. They had
never seen Governors till date going by a regular plane. He did not use
Government plane even for going to Jaipur from Delhi. He set for Jaipur by the
regular plane. Naik also did not use Railway’s plane much when he was Railway
Minister (Minister of State). On the contrary he had brought to notice how
former Railway Minister Jaffer Sharif had misused the Railway’s Plane.
...
-Ravindra Dani
(Translated from original Marathi to
English)
