Centre should decide quickly on Lt Governor issue: Puducherry CM

There seems to be no let-go in the ongoing feud between Puducherry Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi and Chief Minister V Narayanasamy. While the former top cop, Bedi, is accused of crossing her jurisdiction and stepping on the toes of the elected government, the former though claims that she is on a “higher mission” and refuses to be a “rubber stamp”.

“AlI the legislators are completely agitated. I have somehow managed, for now, to stop them from going in for a resolution that would urge the Centre to recall the Lt Governor,” Narayanasamy told National Herald on Thursday.

The legislators—across the political spectrum from the ruling Congress to the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) to the Opposition, All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK-Amma)— are united in seeking the Lt Governor’s recall. They want a resolution to be passed in the Assembly to urge the Centre to recall Bedi, with the threat of boycotting the upcoming presidential polls on July 27.

They have been irked with Bedi visiting their constituencies on her own with no prior intimation, pulling up officials, demanding files and so on. Recently, on May 30, Bedi had conducted a surprise inspection of the counselling process by the Centralised Admission Committee in Puducherry. She gave instructions to officials regarding the 50 per cent seats under government quota.

Things have been getting worse since then, with the CM instructing the legislators not to allow her into their constituencies without their prior information and warned them against joining her without informing the ministers. A similar diktat applied to the officials as well.

The Constitutional lacunae

The root of the problem in Puducherry, perhaps, may lie in the lack of clear constitutional provisions when the UT was provided with a provision for an elected legislature and a council of ministers.

Article 239A of the Constitution provides for the creation of ‘local legislatures’ and a ‘Council of Ministers’ for the “Union territory” of Puducherry. This is in stark contrast to Article 239AA, which spells out in detail about the “special provisions with respect to Delhi”, which is assigned a sort of semi-state status and categorised as ‘National Capital Territory’.

“There is tremendous confusion as the Constitution doesn’t clearly spell out the powers and jurisdiction of both the Lieutenant Governor and the state government. It is a major flaw,” says constitution expert PDT Acharya, former Secretary-General of the Lok Sabha.

With no clear demarcation of powers and jurisdiction, an unconventional Lt Governor, such as Kiran Bedi, seems to be going away from conventions.

Rules define powers of the elected government

The Chief Minister though disagrees. He points out that Article 240(1) clearly says that in the case of Puducherry, the President shall “not make any regulation for the peace, progress and good government” when there’s an elected legislature. That is the President’s representative—the LT Governor—shouldn’t be “making regulations”.

Moreover, “the Rules of Business of the Government of Pondicherry, 1963 does clearly specify the powers of the Chief Minister and his Council of Minister,” Narayanasamy tells National Herald. For instance, in the section on ‘Departmental Disposal of Business’, the powers of the Chief Minister over the various departments are clearly given, he says.

“The Council of Ministers is required to ‘aid and advise’ the Lt Governor in the exercise of his or her functions and not the other way around. It is nowhere written that the Lt Governor has to aid and advise the Council of Ministers,” says Narayanasamy.

He does concede that are 13 items under Rule 25 where the Lt Governor can seek details from the Chief Minister such as on cases raising questions of policy; peace and tranquility; cases which affect any minority community, Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes and so on.

But, he says, Kiran Bedi has been flouting all such rules and on her own visiting the constituencies of the various Ministers and legislators, visiting departments on her own and demanding files from the Secretaries. “The Lt Governor even wants to have a video-conference with the various secretaries. This is nothing but trying to usurp the powers of the elected government,” he says, adding, “She wants to run a parallel government.”

Moreover, Narayanasamy alleges that Bedi has not been allowing his administration from functioning properly and creating hurdles in the implementation of various development schemes.

“She keeps returning files with unreasonable queries,” he says listing out instances such as the Viability Gap Funding issue for the UDAN (Ude Desh Ka Aam Naagrik) scheme; regarding the election promise of providing free education up to post-graduation for the children belonging to the Schedule Castes; a Cabinet decision regarding farmers hit by the drought, among many. “How can we function with such constant impediments?”

Bedi though denies all such allegations and has maintained that her intention was to “prevent corruption” and works “for the interests of Puducherry”.

The CM says that he has already met the President, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and submitted a letter regarding the Lt Governor issue.

Does he also demand the recall of Lt Governor Bedi? Narayanasamy doesn’t say it in as many words and leaves that decision to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government at the Centre.