Punishment posting for defiant Governors
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: July 16, 2014 -
No doubt, in its first Railways and Union Budget since coming to power, the new Government at the Centre has opened its coffers for an underdeveloped region of the country that shares 1 4,500 km long border with neighboring Bangladesh, China, Myanmar and Bhutan.
Apart from the proposal of introducing seven new trains and earmarking Rs 5,116 crore, which is a 54 percent jump over allocations in the previous year, for various projects in the Railway Budget; for the first time ever, Union Budget has given so much prominence to the North East region that it has announced allocation of Rs 3,000 crore for development of roads and another Rs 1,000 crore for railway connectivity.
In addition to this, Rs 100 crore has been allocated for setting up of a sports university in Manipur while another Rs 100 crore set aside for development of commercial organic farming.
Moreover, launching of dedicated 24x7 television channel exclusively for the Northeast for creating awareness of the richness of the diversity of India is on the card.
On the other hands, the committee of retired bureaucrats formed by the Union Home Ministry in wake of the murder of Arunachal Pradesh youth Nido Tania has come up various recommendations including recruitment of people from northeast in the Delhi police and other government departments, inclusion of Northeast culture and history in the text books so as to do away with that feeling of isolation and alienation.
All these developments may give the impression that the perception of the Centre and its rulers towards the Northeast region have changed for the better at last. However, this is not so.
If one scratches over the surface, then one would see that nothing much has changed really with or without the endowments in the first Railways and Union Budget of the new Government.
It is really unfortunate that like its predecessors, the new Government at Centre also thinks Northeast region is a place for dumping or what the mainstream media terms as ‘punishment posting’ of Governors it finds inconvenient to deal or out of favour.
For instance, Kamla Beniwal, the erstwhile Governor of Gujarat, who had taken on Narendra Modi on several occasions when he was Chief Minister, has now been sent to Mizoram and there are talks (read threat) about Sheila Dikshit, the defiant Governor of Kerala, who refused to quit her post despite numerous round of nudging, being sent to Nagaland, after Vakkom Purushothaman resigned in protest against the decision of the new BJP-led NDA Government shifting him from Mizoram to Nagaland without consulting with him.
Of course, legally speaking, the Government at the Centre has the power to transfer any Governor to any part of the country and technically speaking, there is no difference in the office of the Governor anywhere as it is a constitutional post with the same authority, dignity and pay package and perks.
But it is the mindset of the Government at the Centre, which considers the Northeast as some hinterland where defiant Governors should be sent on punishment posting that is so wrong.
* Comments posted by users in this discussion thread and other parts of this site are opinions of the individuals posting them (whose user ID is displayed alongside) and not the views of e-pao.net. We strongly recommend that users exercise responsibility, sensitivity and caution over language while writing your opinions which will be seen and read by other users. Please read a complete Guideline on using comments on this website.