Tamil Nadu Finance Minister P Thiaga Rajan on Thursday said governments in non-BJP states were facing increasing obstruction from governors and questioned the "unseemly" conduct of "unelected individuals", a day after a dramatic escalation in their face-off.
"Nowhere in the vision of the founders of our country or the framers of the constitution, was there room for the personal views of one unelected individual appointed on the advice of the Union Government to second guess or to have an opinion about legislation that is passed by as the elected assembly a member in an assembly of elected state representatives," Dr Thiaga Rajan told NDTV in an interview.
"I would say that the role of Governor is one that should have high dignity and extreme decorum. And it's very unseemly for people sitting in the office of governor to start espousing philosophical views about things that are beyond the constitution or have their own opinion about how society ought to be run, etcetera," he said.
"Those are things you can do as street-level politicians. Those are not things you're supposed to do, sitting as the governor of one of the largest and most industrious states with the second-largest economy in the country. It's completely unbecoming for that role," Dr Thiaga Rajan added.
The minister's comments came a day after friction between governors and governments in three non-BJP-ruled southern states escalated, with Tamil Nadu seeking a recall of RN Ravi, Kerala proposing a special ordinance to replace Arif Mohammed Khan as chancellor of state universities, and Tamilisai Soundararajan expressed doubts of her phone being tapped in Telangana.
The DMK government wrote to President Droupadi Murmu, seeking Mr Ravi's sacking, alleging, among others, that he "instigated communal hatred".
The petition, signed by the ruling alliance's Members of Parliament, also listed the bills stalled by the governor's office, including one seeking an exemption to the state from the ambit of the NEET medical exam and questioned the delay for the assent.
"I will just make the observation that it is worth noting that these are all states where the government is not of the BJP and, [states] where the BJP has very little electoral presence," Dr Thiaga Rajan said, adding that bills not held up by the governor were a major problem for the state.
"Governments which are run by parties other than the BJP seem to be facing greater interference or greater hurdles from governors appointed by the BJP," he said.
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