Gopalkrishna Gandhi

New Delhi, Nov. 10: Governors’ role must be re-defined to prevent them from publicly criticising state governments, the CPM has told a central panel reviewing Centre-state relations.

Replying to a questionnaire from the Justice M.M. Punchi commission, the party said: “If at all the post of the governor has to be retained, it has to be done with some radical re-definitions of his role. Public statements of governors criticising state governments, for instance, need to be curtailed.”

In Bengal, the ruling CPM has had run-ins with governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi over his public outbursts — seen as criticisms of the state government — after the March 2007 Nandigram firing and the area’s “recapture” by armed CPM cadres eight months later.

Constitutional propriety is generally thought to demand that a head of state — the President or a governor — advise his government in private, like the Queen of England does, and not speak against it in public.

Gandhi had said the Nandigram police firing, which allegedly killed 14 people, had filled him with “cold horror” and later described the violent recapture as “unlawful and unacceptable”.

Many welcomed the statements but others saw them as blots on the copybook of the governor, a scholar who has striven to raise the moral tone of governance.

The question from the Punchi commission was: In the constitutional scheme, the governor plays an important role in Centre-state relations; do you have any comments/suggestions regarding this role?

In reply, the CPM reaffirmed its stand that there was no need for governors at all and asked for a provision for their recall at state governments’ request.

“If the governor at any point is found to be operating against the democratic norms of a federal constitutional structure, and is found to act against the interests of the democratically elected Legislative Assembly, there should be a provision to recall the governor,” it said.

“Again, if at all there is necessity for a governor in the state, he or she has to be appointed strictly on the basis of the recommendations of the chief minister to the President of India.”

The party also demanded that the Centre “revise” the governor’s role as the chancellor of state universities.

“The post of the governor, we feel, is an anachronism. Time and again, the ruling party/coalition at the Centre has chosen governors for states mainly to serve its political interests,” the CPM said.

“(There are) hardly any such examples the world over where the Centre in a federal structure has a representative, appointed by it, residing in the state.”