BJP demands recall of Karnataka Governor

Shocked and outraged by the “partisan and unconstitutional behaviour” of the Governor HR Bhardwaj, the BJP on Sunday demanded that President Pratibha Patil should immediately recall him.

“He has lost both legal and moral authority to discharge his role as the President’s appointee. Nothing short of the immediate recall of the Governor will restore faith in constitutional governance in the State of Karnataka,” Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj said in a statement released in the National Capital on Sunday evening.

Swaraj accused the Governor of throwing “all established norms and gubernatorial conduct to the winds” by his highly-objectionable communication to the Assembly Speaker. “The tone, tenor and content of his letter to the Speaker on Sunday make it clear that the Governor is determined to interfere with the legislative process and infringe on the authority of a constitutional functionary, namely, the Speaker,” Swaraj added.

The BJP said Bhardwaj has, in effect, threatened that if the Speaker does not act in a particular manner as directed by the Raj Bhawan, the outcome of the Vote of Confidence in the Assembly scheduled for Monday will not be “acceptable”.

“This is a brazen attempt to influence the result of the vote and is in total violation of the letter and spirit of successive Supreme Court verdicts specifying that the floor of the House is the only place to determine the majority or otherwise of a Government. It bears recalling that the Governor has been acting in a manner prejudicial to constitutional governance in the State of Karnataka and the BJP has repeatedly pointed out his overt political partisanship,” Swaraj pointed out.

She said Bhardwaj’s latest diktat is almost reminiscent of the illegal actions of former Uttar Pradesh Governor Romesh Bhandari in 1996, which had to be overturned by the then President as well as the Allahabad High Court.

In view of this blatantly unconstitutional threat to a constitutional functionary and interference in the domain of the legislature, Swaraj said, the Governor has demonstrated he is unfit to hold high constitutional office.

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