H.R. Bhardwaj was accused of helping destabilise Karnataka’s BJP government in 2010. He denies the allegations and blames problems in BJP for the crisis then.
New Delhi: The political crisis in Karnataka in the aftermath of the hung assembly election verdict and the role of governor Vajubhai Vala has reignited the debate over what are seen as partisan acts of governors. A former high-profile governor, who faced a similar controversy in 2010, feels the time has come for only non-political persons to be appointed governors.
In an interview to ThePrint, former Karnataka governor Hans Raj Bhardwaj, who was also union law minister in UPA-1 said, “The governor has a very high constitutional position in the cooperative federalism system of India. He must be an absolutely independent person. He should function impartially and independently. That is why it is very important to implement the (Justice) Sarkaria Commission recommendations on appointment of governor strictly.”
“Even before Sarkaria Commission, the M.C. Setalvad Administrative Reforms Commission had suggested who should be appointed governors. The reports have been ignored for years and years now. Now the tendency is to appoint committed party workers as governors which is injurious to democracy as well as cooperative federalism,” he said.
The Sarkaria Commission on Centre-State relations in its 1988 report had recommended that only persons who are “eminent in some walk of life” be appointed governors. It had also listed the other parameters on who should be considered for appointment to this office. These included that the person be from outside the state; should be a detached figure and not too intimately connected with the local politics of the state; and, lastly, should be a person who has not taken too great a part in politics generally, and particularly in the recent past.
Bhardwaj was himself a Congress leader when sent to Karnataka as governor in 2009. There were several reports at the time which said he had been cut to size.
‘Never favoured Congress’
“I entirely agree. I was a Congress worker for my entire life; in fact, I am still a Congress worker. But, I was told (by the leadership) that you are no longer in the Cabinet and since you are a senior man, now you go as governor,” Bhardwaj said.
“I knew Sarkaria well, had dealt with his report. That is why before I accepted, I told Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Pratibha Patil that I will not take instructions from the government and that I will be totally independent, because only then would I be able to work for the welfare of the people of Karnataka. And, throughout my tenure, I worked like this. I never acted in favour of the Congress,” Bhardwaj said.
At the time, there were claims that Bhardwaj was shunted out to the Raj Bhawan by a lobby within the Congress.
“I cannot say this now. I am a product of the Nehru-Gandhi family. Anything they want, I will obey. Yes, I felt I could have been better utilised as a law minister as I had done a good job. But, when it was decided that you go, I accepted it as a call of duty,” he said.
“You ask the people of Karnataka, I fought communalism and didn’t act as a Congress agent. You ask any opposition (BJP and JD-S) leader in Karnataka. In fact, the BJP government lasted full five years (despite internal fissures and grave corruption charges),” he asserted.
Bhardwaj denied that he made attempts to destabilise the BJP government in the state. In October 2010, the B.S. Yeddyurappa government in Karnataka faced a sudden crisis when 16 MLAs including 11 from the BJP announced they were withdrawing support from his government. Bhardwaj’s conduct at the time was questioned.
‘Reddy brothers to blame’
He said the events took place due to internal contradictions within the BJP. “Whatever happened then, it was all on account of the mining barons (Reddy brothers of Bellary) or due to problems within the party. I went there in June and the BJP government completed its full five-year term in 2013,” he added.
He said the time has come to finally implement the Sarkaria Commission recommendations on appointment of governors.
“The Supreme Court has said so in Bihar case judgment. I remember I handled that litigation myself. It should have been done. But, nothing has been done. Now, it is customary that only politically-committed people are being sent as governors. There is no sanctity of Raj Bhavans…time had come much earlier. Those who are party people, those who go by party whips or mandate should never occupy Raj Bhavans,” the former law minister said.
With recent events suggesting a dismantling of institutions, Bhardwaj agreed that Congress also shares some of the blame.
“Everybody has to share… But, biggest is now. What is happening now? I know all the governors. That is the biggest tragedy in the country. They (governors) don’t read the constitution, don’t uphold the law, they don’t even obey the Supreme Court (judgements). Bommai case judgment is binding even today. But who cares for it today? The biggest threat to democracy is from communalism. It is road-rolling democracy,” Bhardwaj said.