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Purohit issue not the first of its kind in Tamil Nadu
During the first two decades after Independence, when the Congress was ruling the state, the Governor’s role was negligible to the level of calling the post as ‘goat’s beard.’ The term was coined by DMK founder CN Annadurai, who used the description to drive home the point that the country does not need such a post just like a goat’s beard, which is not necessary for the animal’s functioning.
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Chennai
But the gubernatorial post was in the eye of a storm recently with all the Opposition parties accusing the present Governor Banwarilal Purohit of functioning beyond his role specified in the Constitution. He is not the first Governor to come under criticism, since there were Governors earlier who also found themselves in similar situations.
The trend began after the DMK captured power in the state as two different parties were in power in the Red Fort and Fort St George. Some Governors had been accused of clashing with elected governments and some of colluding with the state government.
When Kodardas Kalidas Shah took over in May 1971, the parties ruling the state and Centre were in alliance and Shah was considered a close friend of Chief Minister M Karunanidhi. Matinee idol MGR, who split with the DMK in 1972, was aggrieved with the Governor’s attitude of not taking the complaints to the Centre. Losing his patience with the Governor, MGR once remarked ‘KK is the short form of Kalaignar Karunanidhi Shah.’
A titanic clash between the two Constitutional heads prevailed during the late chief minister J Jayalalithaa’s first tenure when Marri Channa Reddy was appointed the Governor. Jayalaltihaa went to the level of convening the Assembly without the Governor’s customary New Year address. Neither the Chief Minister, nor the other Ministers attended the Republic Day function in 1994, in which the Governor unfurled the flag and presided over. The clash started when Reddy rejected all the three names recommended by the state government for the post of vice-chancellorship of Madras University. A personal meeting of the then chief minister and Governor ended abruptly with Jayalalithaa levelling serious charges against Channa Reddy.
Later, Governor M Fathima Beevi came under severe attack from the Opposition for swearing in Jayalalithaa as the CM in 2001, after she was debarred from contesting elections in the TANSI case.
Recently, Governor C Vidaysagar Rao faced the Opposition’s flak, when he refused to call for a floor test against Edappadi K Palaniswami.
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