Oh dear Basu !
Has anyone wondered why the post of Governor of any state has so less dignity. Here are a few reasons I could think of:
- The post has been used for political retirement. Political parties can retire doddering old politicians to this post, which people surmise is the end of a politician. Looks like old politicians don’t die, they become governors.
- It has been used time and again to settle political debts, “Dude I supported you when you were short of MP’s to form that government, so make me a state’s Governor and of course my son will take over the party and my post”
- They act on behalf of whoever appointed them, although their post is supposed be non-partisan, they do dismiss governments on advice of whoever got them the post in the first place.
- State governments often get the kind of Governor they want and expect him to act in the “interests” of the party. The Congress government in Andhra Pradesh got congressman Sushil Shinde as their governor, he after one year as a Governor before joining the Manmohan government, or shall I call it the Sonia government. Guess he wasn’t retired after all.
The most important case in point here is West Bengal’s Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi who asked that his official residence receive a power cut for a few hours every day (??). Jyoti Basu, who has officially retired, called the Governor’s action childish. Maybe the Governor meant it as an insult to the present government’s power dilemma or maybe not but Mr. Basu’s comment is definitely an insult to the Governor’s post.
Although there were no comments from anybody in the government, there were no protests either which only goes to show what little dignity is left in the Governor’s post. Also goes to show that not everybody with the surname “Gandhi” is simple minded.
[...] when the Governor Gandi was addressing a press conference. I had a post recently about how the Governor asked for a voluntary power cut and was called [...]