In three Southern States, its Governor Vs Govts; bigger war in Telangana

Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan on Wednesday taking the conflict here to an entirely different level with politically coloured allegations that have rarely come from the Raj Bhavan.

Hyderabad: Governors appointed by the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Centre appear to have declared an outright war against State governments in three Southern States, with Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan on Wednesday taking the conflict here to an entirely different level with politically coloured allegations that have rarely come from the Raj Bhavan.

Interestingly, Soundararajan’s allegations come at a time when the BJP-led Centre appears to be spearheading a war from all sides against the State through a slew of measures including what the State government has called unilateral financial restrictions, apart from mounting pressure by withholding funds, grants and rightful compensations.

---

The Governor versus Government face-offs in the three States, restricted to ping-ponging bills and verbal charges on university-related affairs so far, has meanwhile moved into legal wrangles in two States. In Tamil Nadu, the ruling DMK has submitted a memorandum to the President seeking removal of Governor RN Ravi, while in Kerala, the CPI (M)-led government has voted to bring in an ordnance or special order to remove the Governor as Chancellor of Universities.

With Soundararajan’s allegations during a press conference on Wednesday, a common pattern is emerging in these face-offs in non-BJP ruled States.

The Governor keeps in pending or refuses to sign crucial bills, makes statements criticising the State or its ministers, tries to interfere in day-to-day administrative affairs and then, as the State retaliates legally or acts in protest, all sorts of allegations come flying from the Raj Bhavan, including personal ones against Chief Ministers, Ministers or as seen in Tamil Nadu, riling up the ruling party with controversial statements on heritage and linguistic identities.

Soundararajan’s allegation of phone tapping, in fact, bears uncanny resemblance to the one raised by former West Bengal Governor, Jagdeep Dhankhar. He was at loggerheads with Mamta Banerjee’s government, and alleged that the Raj Bhavan was ‘under surveillance’.

What however makes the timing of Soundararajan’s allegations sound part of a larger plan, keeping aside the immediate spark of the Telangana Universities Common Recruitment Board Bill, is that there were no provocations from the side of the State government. Her statement on Pragathi Bhavan bring out the political shades in her allegations, because if she wanted to welcome protestors to Raj Bhavan, she could have straightaway done that without a reference to the Chief Minister’s official residence.

Further, the allegation of phone tapping comes when no Minister nor the Chief Minister nor the TRS (BRS) Party have in any official statement made any reference to the Raj Bhavan in connection with the MLA poaching case.

The allegations, along with the sudden attention from central agencies including the Enforcement Directorate and Income Tax on Telangana, have to be read alongside the indirect offensive mounted by the Centre by way of denying funds, grants and compensations and directly, the restrictions on loans for the State under the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act.

The enormity of the impact of these attacks on the finances of the State can be understood from Finance Minister T Harish Rao’s recorded statement in the Assembly, that the State had suffered a loss of Rs.15,033 crore in the 2022-23 fiscal as the Centre imposed restrictions on loans under the FRBM Act. Apart from this, he had said, the Centre owes the State over Rs.1 lakh crore in the form of pending funds, grants and compensations over the last eight years.

Though the State is within permissible limits in debts and better placed than several other States in fiscal indicators, the denial of loans is being attributed to politics, of which the Raj Bhavan has now become part of.