Breaking bread? A taste of truce in Kerala Governor’s dinner with state MPs

Governors can either aggressively challenge the state government or act as peacemakers between the Centre and the state. While many of his counterparts are involved in confrontations with their governments, Kerala Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar recently met MPs from the Left-ruled state, emphasising he wants to break the pattern of hostilities that marked the relationship between the Raj Bhavan in Thiruvananthapuram and the Pinarayi Vijayan government during the tenure of Arlekar’s predecessor Arif Mohammed Khan.

There is a perceptible difference in Raj Bhavan-government ties under Khan and Arlekar. While the former faced protests from the students’ wing of the CPI(M), Arlekar has gone beyond his brief by showing solidarity with the state government.

Last week, Arlekar hosted all the MPs from Kerala for a dinner discussion at Kerala House in Delhi, with Vijayan alongside him on the dais. “Personally, I have politics. But I am not interested in creating any controversy. I am aware of the state’s issues and I will be with the Chief Minister in raising them with the central government,” Arlekar said at the meeting.

The following day, the CM invited the Governor to his breakfast meeting with Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to discuss several issues over which the state government and the Centre have been at odds.

Situation in other states

However, as far as the relationship between Raj Bhavans and other Opposition-ruled states goes, Arlekar appears to be an outlier. From R N Ravi’s run-ins with the M K Stalin-led DMK government in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal Governor C V Ananda Bose’s frequent disagreements with the government of Mamata Banerjee, most examples are of Opposition-ruled governments clashing with the Raj Bhavan over various issues.

Bose started on conciliatory terms with Banerjee before their relationship deteriorated. Of late, the ties between the Raj Bhavan and the government have shown signs of improvement. Before Bose, current Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar had run-ins with the TMC government during his tenure as Governor.

A major part of the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) third term in office, especially towards the end, was marked by discord with the Lieutenant Governor’s office that hampered governance, with the Kejriwal-led party accusing the L-G of working for the BJP. Since losing power in last month’s elections, many in the AAP have pointed to this as one of the reasons that contributed to its loss.

Then there is the example of Lakshadweep Administrator Praful Khoda Patel who, since his appointment in December 2020, has received vehement criticism from locals as well as the politicians in the islands who have accused him of destroying Lakshadweep’s heritage, harassing its people and imposing arbitrary rules. In the past, both the Congress and the Left have demanded that he be recalled.

While its relationship with the Kerala Raj Bhavan may be improving right now, the CPI(M) in the past has alleged that governors under BJP rule had become its agents. “The governors appointed to the non-BJP ruled states in the past few years have shown them to be agents of the ruling party, or, worse political henchmen. These governors have trampled upon constitutional norms and arrogated to themselves the task of supervising and interfering in matters which concern the elected state governments,” argued an editorial in the party’s mouthpiece People’s Democracy in February 2023.

The BJP’s critics alleged that the Narendra Modi government has an agenda in appointing governors in each state, especially Opposition-ruled ones.

Though the relationship between Governors and the state governments has undeniably evolved, especially under BJP rule, the BJP points to how politicised Raj Bhavans were in the decades the Congress was in power. Allegations of the Centre using the Raj Bhavan to destabilise state governments have been made since the 1950s.

In 1959, the E M S Namboodiripad government in Kerala was dismissed based on a report by the Governor. Several state governments have been dismissed since then, including 63 through President’s Rule orders issued by Governors between 1971 and 1990. These became less frequent during the coalition era at the Centre and the emergence of strong regional parties.

As the conflict between some Governors and governments continues in some states, the precedent set by Arlekar illustrates the ideal dynamics that should govern ties between the Raj Bhavan and elected representatives. While many are seen as disruptors, creating hurdles for the elected governments, some Governors appear to be following PM Modi’s advice — he made the remarks at a Conference of Governors held last August — by playing the “role of an effective bridge between the Centre and the state”.