Senior BJP leader L.K. Advani led a delegation of party leaders and 23 MPs from Karnataka to President Pratibha Patil on Monday and urged her to “revoke the Presidential pleasure” and “recall” Karnataka Governor H.R. Bhardwaj for exhibiting “extra-constitutional and confrontationist attitude” to the B.S. Yeddyurappa-led BJP government.
Vehemently opposing the sanction given by the Governor for prosecution of Mr. Yeddyurappa in the “land deal” case, the party said, in a joint memorandum, that the constitutional order could be restored in the State only with the removal of Mr. Bhardwaj. The sanction was given “in undue haste with political motives,” as there was no investigation report on the case without which the prima facie case could not be established.
Senior leaders Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, M. Venkaiah Naidu, S.S. Ahuluwalia and H.N. Anantha Kumar were part of the delegation.
The party referred to the media reports on the Governor referring to the State Cabinet passing a resolution against the sanction as ulta chor kotwal ko dante (thief complains against the police), and said the statement amply demonstrated the biased attitude of Mr. Bhardwaj, and he had “prejudged the issue on political considerations.” He had insulted the Chief Minister, the Cabinet and the entire Karnataka by “such derogatory comments.”
The Karnataka people were hurt by Mr. Bhardwaj's behaviour and his continuation in office had become “untenable and unacceptable.” His mindset was “motivated by extraneous and collateral purposes, less as an activist of an Opposition party.” His “sarcastic and negative statements, intended to embarrass the State government,” ever since he took office on June 25, 2009, reflected that he was harbouring a political agenda. He had converted the Raj Bhavan into a political instrument/weapon for harassing the Karnataka government in general and the Chief Minister and some of his Cabinet colleagues in particular. Mr. Bhardwaj crossed all the boundaries which circumscribed the office of Governor as the constitutional head of the government.
The BJP claimed that Mr. Bhardwaj was shooting letter after letter to the State government to divert the energies of the head of the government from focussing on the administration and implementing development programmes. The signals that emanated from the Raj Bhavan demonstrated that Mr. Bhardwaj was keen on joining the mainstream politics. Later, Mr. Advani told journalists that the delegation referred to various instances to prove Mr. Bhardwaj's “extra-constitutional and confrontationist attitude” and how he had been “harbouring a political agenda.”
