Guest Editorial
Nava Thakuria
As Assam Congress served an ultimatum to the Union government in New Delhi to remove the present Governor Padmanabh Balakrishna Acharya, the State chief minister Tarun Gogoi also launched an aggressive initiative to replace the acting Governor with the allegation that he has converted Governor’s office into an extension of Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) office.
The veteran Congress leader, while dashing off a letter to President Pranab Mukherjee recently urged his good office to intervene immediately in replacement the acting Governor. Gogoi argued that the continuance of Acharya as acting Governor of Assam, who is also in charge of Nagaland, would cause immense difficulty in functioning of parliamentary democracy system and create fissures in the secular ethos of the State.“We had welcomed Shri PB Acharya to our State as we presumed that being a high Constitutional functionary, he would conduct himself fairly, cautiously and circumspectly. However, I am pained to say that ever since assuming office, His Excellency, the Governor of Assam, through his actions, has steadily lowered the prestige of the institution of the Governor,” said Gogoi.
Gogoi pointed out that Governor Acharya unilaterally altered a panel of six names belonging to the unrepresented communities as nominated members, submitted by the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) and recommended by the council of ministers to replace four of them with nominees of his own choice. Aggrieved by this act of the Governor, the BTC even filed a writ petition in Gauhati High Court, added Gogoi.
CM Gogoi further informed that the Governor in his capacity as Chancellor of Assam Agricultural University (AAU) constituted a three-member committee to probe into the allegations against vice-chancellor Dr KM Bujarbaruah based on a complaint petition that eventually irked members of seven associations. The decision of Governor Acharya was also challenged in Gauhati High Court.
Gogoi also brought to the notice of President Mukherjee about the meeting of Governor Acharya with a BJP delegation led by its Assam unit leader Siddhartha Bhattacharjee at Raj Bhawan on 21 September 2015. It is clear from video footage of the meeting, aired on local television channels that during the discussions, the Governor was advising the delegates on BJP’s political strategy almost like a party executive rather than a constitutional functionary, claimed the chief minister.
Earlier Assam Congress president Anjan Dutta threatened to launch a daily protest programme outside the Raj Bhavan if the Centre does not remove Governor Acharya within a month. Meanwhile, a 10000 strong Congress rally was organized in the city recently to raise voices against the Governor.
A major allegation against Governor Acharya was that he commented ‘Hindustan is for Hindus’ on 21 November last and the statement has already created uproar across the Nation. But in reality the Governor said the line in a different context, where he said that is a Hindu national is persecuted anywhere in the world, (s)he has legitimate right to take refugee in Hindustan (Bharat). The residents of the great country should also support those asylum seekers.
That way Hindustan is always for Hindu people. But Governor Acharya never said that Hindustan is only for Hindus meaning the others have no right to live in the country. It was completely distorted and misinterpreted by the media, where his version was broken and adopted with ill intentions. Shockingly, the politicians including the State chief minister took the advantage of misreporting to blame the Governor for something, which he never pronounced.
