PTI
NEW DELHI, AUGUST 24
MAHARASHTRA Governor K Sankaranarayanan today resigned from the post hours after he was transferred to Mizoram by the government.
“I sent my resignation today to the President of India. It is not possible for me to go to Mizoram,” Sankaranarayan said in a press conference here.
“I will return to active politics,” said the 82-year-old veteran Congress leader from Kerala. He was among the UPA-appointed Governors who were asked to resign by the new BJP government. But, he had refused to do so. His tenure ends in 2017.
He said as governors in various states, he never played any politics.
“I was friendly with all political parties, friendly with the BJP also, Shiv Sena. All the political parties. Because I have no politics, because I am the governor,” he said.
The governors are appointed by the President and the President has powers to transfer the governors, he said.
“My feeling is that I have to honour the Constitution--the Magna Carta for governors. I have to abide that, I did that,” he said.
Sankaranarayanan thanked the people of Maharashtra for the support they extended to him during his tenure.
Asked whether the move is part of political vendetta, he said, “That is up to you people to comment about it. Our press people are so shrewd, so capable, so intelligent.”
“I actually supported the Constitution,” he said, adding, “We want the prestige and status of the governors in future also.”
“In a democratic set up, no government is permanent. No post is permanent, that will change. Democracy is bigger than anything, we are one of the biggest democratic countries in the world,” he added.
Sankaranarayanan was among the first batch of governors telephoned by Home Secretary Anil Goswami to put in their papers after change of government at the Centre.
In an apparent bid to ease him out, the government shunted him to Mizoram after he had refused to quit.
A Rashtrapati Bhawan communique issued late last night had said that Sankaranarayanan has been shifted to Mizoram and Gujarat Governor OP Kohli has been asked to discharge his duties.
He has been serving as Governor of Maharashtra since 22 January, 2010. He took oath as Governor of Maharashtra for a second time on May 7, 2012 after the President granted him a fresh term of five.
Mizoram to see 4 governors in 2 months
IANS
AIZAWL/NEW DELHI, AUGUST 24
THE Congress-ruled northeastern state of Mizoram is likely to have the dubious distinction of having four governors in less than two months.
Maharashtra governor K. Sankaranarayanan was Sunday transferred to Mizoram for the remainder of his term which is scheduled to end in 2017. He resigned later in the day.
The successive transfers of the Mizoram governor started with Vakkom B. Purushothaman when he was transferred to Nagaland July 6.
Purushothaman resigned July 11 claiming he was not consulted on his transfer.
Gujarat governor Kamla Beniwal was then transferred to Mizoram after Purushothaman was moved as governor of Nagaland with additional charge of Tripura.
Kamla Beniwal, 87, assumed office July 9 as the 12th governor of Mizoram. In less than a month, Beniwal was sacked from the gubernatorial post Aug 6. Former union home secretary Vinod Kumar Duggal, the incumbent governor of Manipur, was given additional charge of Mizoram.
He assumed office Aug 8 as the 13th governor of the mountainous state bordering Myanmar and Bangladesh.
Beniwal, who had a strained relationship with Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he was Gujarat chief minister, was sacked two months before her tenure comes to an end.
Beniwal was the second governor removed from her post by the National Democratic Alliance government. Former Puducherry governor Virendra Kataria was sacked July 12.
After the Narendra Modi government took charge May 26, six governors resigned following signals from the government. They were B.L. Joshi (Uttar Pradesh), Shekhar Dutt (Chhattisgarh), Ashwani Kumar (Nagaland), M.K. Narayanan (West Bengal), B.V. Wanchoo (Goa) and Vakkom B. Purushothaman (Mizoram).
Earlier, media reports said the BJP-led government was pressurising some of the governors appointed by the previous Congress-led regime - including Sankaranarayanan - to relinquish office in June.
Sankaranarayanan had then said he would resign if asked by “appropriate authorities”.
Octogenarian Sankaranarayanan is a Congress leader from Kerala and has held several posts including that of state minister for finance and agriculture. He was also convenor of the United Democratic Front, the Congress-led ruling combine in Kerala.
He was first appointed governor of Nagaland, and then moved to Jharkhand. He was first posted as Maharashtra governor Jan 22, 2010.
Sankaranarayanan was re-appointed Maharashtra governor for the second term in 2012 by the previous Congress-led central government. His term was supposed to end in 2017.
A Congress leader in Aizawl said the NDA government has chosen Mizoram Raj Bhavan as a “punishment centre” for governors appointed by the previous government.
“This approach and mindset would make the constitutional posts ‘babyish assignments’,” the Congress leader told IANS on condition of anonymity.
The Congress Sunday criticised the government for exercising its power in an “extremely arbitrary manner” over the transfer of Sankaranarayanan to Mizoram.
“This government chooses to exercise power in an extremely arbitrary manner. It is like deja vu. Kamla Beniwal was transferred to Mizoram and after that, she saw it on television that she was dismissed as the governor of Mizoram. Authoritarianism is really the DNA of the government,” Congress leader Manish Tewari said in New Delhi.
