Victims of Governor:Gujarat and Gujaratis

Governor with Congress leaders Shaktisinh Gohil and Arjun Modhwadia

Editor’s note, Ahmedabad, 24 September, 2011

State assembly is a law making body. Majority of members in assembly pass a bill, so that it can become a law ultimately.

However in Gujarat, a role of the law making body and the ruling party with majority in the house has been minimized by the Governor who is believed to be in influence of the opposition party.

If popular and elected state government would bring a bill and pass it in assembly, the Governor would return, or would sit on that bill and would not allow it to become law!! Governor would do this not in one or two cases but in most of the cases!! Governor would recommend amendments and would return the bill and if the amendments are not considered, she would not allow the bill to go ahead!!

Governor, 84, former Congress minister in Rajasthan is in good terms with the leader of opposition and her growing postures of contradicting the state government decisions create a serious question whether Gujarat is ruled by an elected government or by the opposition party – Governor alliance?

Can you imagine a situation? A party that enjoys over 120 seats out of 182 in Gujarat assembly, is unable to make desired laws for the people that are likely to impact millions of citizens? Goevrnor has returned nine bills back so far!

Have a look on this development. The students of South Gujarat’s Uka Tarsadia university are agitating these days because their university is not recognized. The Governor has direct role in this.

Gujarat assembly in last April passed – what it can be termed as just another routine bill – approving four private universities in the state. One of them was Bardoli based Uka Tarsadia university. A bill passed in the assembly goes to Governor for approval. The Governor in tussle with the state government refused to sign this routine bill and returned it. Whatever the level of tussle, this bill was so normal that the state government had not even a little doubt that Governor could return it. The government had therefore issued a letter of intent to the university, based on which the university gave admission to 4500 students.

Now these 4500 students are agitating in Bardoli protesting against lacking of approval to the university. Academic work is stalled in the campus. There are three other universities facing same problem, thanks to 84-year-old former Congress minister Governor in tussle.

While Gujarat government is all set to pass the bill again this Tuesday in Gujarat assembly monsoon session, there’s no rule that defines in what time limit Governor has to pass the bill. So it is most likely that Governor would most probably sit on the bill, God knows for how long period.

Bills that are to be reintroduced in this session of assembly are Unauthorized Construction Regulation Bill, Private University bill and Bombay (Kutch Region) Inams Abolition (repeal) bill. The bills are reintroduced because, Governor returned them for reconsideration suggesting amendments.

The government has reportedly accepted suggestions of the governor on two other bills. Governor had said in her objection to Impact fee bill that there was no transparent provision in it to ensure that illegal constructions in urban areas would not recur after the payment of fine. Modi govt has accepted this point approving an amendment the Modi cabinet has cleared an amendment to the Gujarat Regularization of Unauthorized Development Bill, 2011, fixing a cut-off date, March 28, 2011. Illegal structures raised after this will not be regularized. The governor had insisted, “The Bill should specifically provide that any new unauthorized/ illegal constructions that might take place after a certain cut-off date would not be regularized under any circumstances.” The government has accepted the governor’s suggestion on Gujarat Private Universities (Amendment) Bill, 2011, which she had also returned, saying these colleges were built on government subsidies and the bill allows grant-in-aid colleges to be turned into private universities, forcing thousands of students to pay higher fees.

BJP is going to organize a grand rally on Sunday demanding that governor should be recalled for her alleged unconstitutional act of appointing Lokayukta in the state without consulting the council of ministers. Other two demands the rally is going to make are, governor’s node to women’s reservation bill and her approval to unauthorized construction regulation bill.

Last week in a national TV debate, when BJP spokesperson Ravishankar Prasad found that Gujarat opposition leader Shaktisinh Gohil was one of the panelists, he expressed anger for bringing in such persons in debate. Prasad asked Gohil to win Gujarat through election rather than attempting governor and lokayukta routes. Gohil, clearly insulted by BJP’s national spokesperson was not allowed to speak by the channel in rest part of that debate. Gohil is believed to be the man behind this game of blocking the bills and controversial appointment of Lokayukta.