The Youth Wing of the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) has launched a campaign seeking one lakh signatures to urge the Centre to recall Tamil Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit.
Justifying the campaign, the party cited a letter dated September 1, 2011, written by the then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi to the then Prime Minister, seeking the immediate recall of Governor Kamla Beniwal, accusing her of interfering in the governance of the State and contending that “her actions contravened the provisions of Article 163 (1) of the Constitution, thereby having a bearing on the system of governance and federal polity of India”. The move came after the Governor appointed Justice R.A. Mehta as Lokayukta of Gujarat, going against the recommendations of the then Gujarat CM and his Cabinet.
The MDMK’s youth wing leader, V. Easwaran, said that his party was raking up the letter written by Mr. Modi in 2011, accompanied with one lakh signatures, only to “refresh the memory” of the Prime Minister. “The Governor is only a constitutional appointment, and only a government elected by the people could be a powerful one — these were the words of Mr. Modi in his letter,” he said.
He noted that Mr. Modi had, in his letter, pointed out that as per the Sarkaria Commission’s recommendations, the Centre shall not appoint politicians as Governors in States which are ruled by opposition parties, and instead, it should only appoint experts in various fields or academicians as Governors to prevent parallel governments.
Mr. Modi had warned that the Governor’s interference in the governance of the State would destroy the federal polity and dilute democratic principles, Mr. Easwaran recalled, adding that any such unabated interference by Raj Bhavan in the State administration would render the Legislative Assembly redundant.
