Khan Exceeding His Brief

The ding-dong battle between the Government of Kerala and State Governor Arif Mohammed Khan has begun to border on the absurd. The tensions between Khan and Pinarayi Vijayan’s government have escalated to new high with former asking vice chancellors’ of nine state universities to submit their resignation by 11-30 am on Monday, a deadline having been crossed without seeing the requisite action being executed.

Khan has been the most unfriendly governor Kerala ever had. Ever since his posting in Thiruvananthapuram, he had been seen in an adversarial role, totally unbecoming of the status conferred on the Head of the State by the Constitution. In the diverse political tapestry of Indian states, there are bound to be differences and divergence in preferences of the Governor and the State Government. But running of the state being the business of the State Government, it is the will and wish of the latter that must prevail. Khan must be aware of the role the Constitution assigns to him but has been acting in a manner that frequently evokes concern and triggers friction. In a state such as Kerala where Khan can find too few ideological supporters, his actions have begun to provoke both caustic criticism and sarcasm.

The axis of the current confrontation is Governor’s attempt to shift the control of the state universities from the State’s executive. Khan perceives in them a fountainhead of leftism, something that is anathema to the saffron ideology. Not merely this, he has been at odds with the Vijayan Government on a host of issues. Earlier this month he warned a State Minister of withdrawing his pleasure from being in office. It was unmistakably an overt threat of dismissal to a minister who, of course, holds the office at the Governor’s pleasure but can be, as is conventionally practiced, removed only by the Chief Minister. Khan’s fulminations were a response to the minister’s totally innocuous and perfectly appropriate observation that all state functionaries are bound by their Constitutional duties.

Article 164 of the Constitution and the entire jurisprudential records of the Supreme Court stand testimony that the ministers are appointed on the advice of the chief minister and the council of ministers is collectively responsible to the legislature. The Governor’s exercise of power on any such matter is subject to the advice of the council of ministers.

Earlier this year, Khan’s angst was aroused when the Kerala University Vice Chancellor turned down Governor’s request to confer an honorary D.Litt on the then President Ramnath Kovind. Refusal was valid as the VC could not have taken a spontaneous decision to this effect without the approval of the Syndicate.

Khan’s actions smack of him acting as a plenipotentiary of the Centre in a State where power has been alternating between two known political adversaries of the Bharatiya Janata Party. Finding no scope to intrude into policies and functioning of the State that is model of development in a variety of ways, it has found in Governor’s office an instrument to poke its nose. It is time Khan understands that he as Governor has exceeded his brief and avoids the race to the flashpoint.