The record of the Narendra Modi government has been to brazen out criticism and even reward those governors who go beyond their job description
The Supreme Court judgement in the case of Governor of Tamil Nadu R N Ravi will have an impact beyond the state in defining the role of governors. The desire of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), like that of the Congress in its heyday, to rule the states as well as the Centre, has revived the debate about the impartiality and constitutional autonomy of the governors.
Ravi’s overreach of his constitutional powers lay in rejecting Bills passed by the legislature, not once but twice after his first rejection. He explained what this meant to a group of civil service aspirants: “It is a decent use of the word ‘reject’. When you say ‘withhold’, the Bill is dead.” This prompted former law minister P Chidambaram to quip, “Actually when a governor withholds assent for no valid reason, it means ‘parliamentary democracy is dead’.”
The arbitrary exercise of the powers of governors has led to allegations of partisanship and interference in the governance of Opposition-ruled states….
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After the truth-shower 