Sunder Singh Bhandari and (above) Govind Narayan Singh

Patna, Aug. 3: Change has been the mantra of the Nitish Kumar regime ever since it came to power in 2005 and got re-elected with brute majority last year.

But what hasn’t changed is the relationship between the government and Raj Bhavan.

Be it the regime of Nitish Kumar, Lalu Prasad, Bhagwat Jha Azad or even the first chief minister, S.K. Sinha, Bihar has seldom witnessed a cordial relationship between the government and the governors.

Of late, the Nitish government and Governor Devanand Konwar have been at loggerheads over the appointment of the vice-chancellor of the state universities. On Monday, Konwar appointed six VCs, which the government says violates the “unwritten consensus” reached between the governor and the chief minister.

Economist and director of the Asian Development Research Institute, Saibal Gupta, who has been a part of the Nitish government’s initiatives in education and planning, summed up the situation: “Usually, politically rejected and non-functional people are chosen as the governors. Once they become the governor, they forget that they are only the de jure head of the state.”

His remarks might invoke a debate on the institution of the governor. But the fact remains that the ties between the government and Raj Bhavan have been on the rocks with several instances of chief ministers and governors fighting ferociously and even hitting the streets.

During the NDA regime at the Centre, the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government had appointed senior BJP leader Sunder Singh Bhandari as governor. In his capacity as governor (March 18, 1999, to May 6, 2003), Bhandari twice recommended the dismissal of the Rabri Devi government.

Lalu Prasad, the man who was ruling Bihar by proxy, got his cadres to hit the streets and organised a 24-hour havan to pray for the exit of Bhandari.

To express his dislike for Bhandari, Lalu Prasad even used kerosene oil instead of ghee to keep the havan aflame on Patna’s streets. Bhandari gave several reports damning the Lalu-Rabri regime.

Lalu did not spare Bhandari even after the latter went to Gujarat as governor in May 2003. “Bhandari has got blinkers on his eyes. Why has he not recommended the dismissal of Narendra Modi who has presided over the worst-ever riots in Gujarat,” the RJD boss had famously said.

During the Congress era, when governors and chief ministers usually came from the same party, the situation was no different. Old timers still recall the hostility between then chief minister Bhagwat Jha Azad and governor Govind Narayan Singh (February 26, 1988, to January 24, 1989).

Singh began travelling through the districts and even started reviewing law and order. The hostility between Singh and Azad became so intense that the chief minister once “hijacked” a government motorboat which Singh was scheduled to board to ferry him across the Ganga.

The tiff between the governor and the chief minister dates back many eras when independent Bihar got its first governor in Jairamdas Daulatram on August 15, 1947. Daulatram issued an executive order suspending an employee of the Raj Bhavan at Ranchi, Bihar’s summer capital then. The first chief minister, S.K. Sinha, took umbrage, questioning the governor’s authority to issue an executive order and eventually persuaded then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to withdraw Daulatram.

However, the elected leaders have, at times, benefited from the governor’s “favours”. Yunus Saleem, as Bihar governor, administered oath to Lalu Prasad as chief minister in 1990 despite the Janata Dal legislature party divided on Lalu then. Lalu returned the favour by getting Saleem later elected from Katihar as Janata Dal MP in the nineties.

Bhandari administered oath to Nitish as the chief minister in 2000 even though the JD(U) leader lacked majority. Nitish failed to survive the test on the floor of the House and resigned within a week, paving the way for the return of the Rabri Devi government.