Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao came down heavily on the gubernatorial system in vogue in the country in an apparent reference to his strained relationship with the Governor of Telangana.
At the plenary of TRS on Wednesday, Mr. Rao cited examples of Governors of Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, and Kerala working at cross-purposes with elected State governments.
In this context, he specifically mentioned the role of Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshiyari in sitting over a file related to the recommendation of the State government on 12 nominees for Legislative Council under the Governor’s quota and Tamil Nadu government’s Bills empowering the government to scrap NEET for students from the State and empowering the government to appoint Vice-Chancellors for 13 universities.
He recalled that the Centre did not learn lessons from the manner in which a popular government headed by N.T. Rama Rao was overthrown in 1984 but reinstated following a public uproar. The then Governor Ramlal met a humiliating experience as he was forced to quit. Over 200 MLAs of Telugu Desam Party stood solidly behind NTR to testify that the will of people in a democracy prevailed. The Centre now shows scant respect for people’s voices.