Is the Telangana government unhappy over the appointment of new Governor of the state Tamilisai Soundararajan? An editorial written by the chief public relations officer of Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, VJN Rao, is now in the centre of a controversy as it suggests that appointment of governors should be from apolitical backgrounds and if not, the Centre could probably misuse such offices for political gains. The article was published on Sunday, the day Tamilisai took oath.

Dr Soundararajan was the Tamil Nadu BJP chief before taking over as the first woman Governor of Telangana. She also unfruitfully contested in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from Thoothukudi constituency against DMK leader Kanimozhi.

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A Governor should be from an apolitical background?

To back his claims, VJN Rao quoted the guidelines of the Sarkaria Commission report which was not followed in the recent appointments by the Centre. Rao wrote, "The Sarkaria Commission in its report on October 1987, suggested that the Governor should be a person of some eminence in some field and should be a detached figure with little record of participation in the local politics of the State. He or she should be a person who has not taken too great a part in politics generally and particularly in the recent past of his or her appointment. It is desirable that a politician from the ruling party at the Centre should not be made the Governor of a State-run by another party. It should be ensured that there is effective consultation with the Chief Minister of a State while appointing a Governor in that State. None of these is apparently followed."

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"Let the appointment of Governors not be a process of political rehabilitation for the party in power at the Centre as reflected in the recent appointments under the present dispensation. It’s high time we make necessary changes in the Constitution and do away with the old practices? The sooner, the better," he added.

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BJP demands apology

The BJP has heavily criticised the article. Chief Spokesperson Krishna Saagar Rao retorted, "The article is completely baseless. Nobody at his level, as a senior state government officer, can make such statements without having support from someone senior from behind. So we certainly doubt KCR's involvement in this. If he doesn't, then he has to come out in the open, condemn this article which his CPRO has written and then he has to apologise to Governor Soundararajan unconditionally. This is what the BJP demands."

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