State Of Head Governors have been seen as partisan for decades. They should be accountable to Centre, state & Rajya Sabha

Source: The post is based on the article “State Of Head – Governors have been seen as partisan for decades. They should be accountable to Centre, state & Rajya Sabha” published in The Times of India on 17th March 2023.

Syllabus: GS – 2: Structure, organization and functioning of the Executive and the Judiciary.

Relevance: About friction points between governor and state governments.

News: The Supreme Court has questioned the Maharashtra governor’s rationale in calling for a trust vote that led to the resignation of the Chief Minister.

What was the issue about?

What are the various friction points between governor and state governments?

-The biggest issues against the governors are they are not giving assent to bills passed by assemblies. In some cases, governors are delaying assent to bills which directly affect governance in the states. For instance, the Telangana government recently moved to SC as their Governor has not signed seven bills and has not cleared the state budget.

-The SC is hearing a Punjab CM vs governor case. In that, the SC has said that the levels of discourse should not degenerate into a “race to the bottom”.

-Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Bengal have all protested governors’ using their office in a manner that’s seen as slowing down or meddling in state government function.

-The other friction point include governors’ refusal to convene assembly sessions, and vice-chancellor appointments.

What should be done to reduce friction points between governor and state governments?

Governors have been perceived to be following the Centre’s writ, whichever the party in the Centre. To correct this, governors should be made accountable to not just the Centre but also the state and Rajya Sabha.