Itanagar, Dec. 9: Battle lines between Raj Bhavan and the chief minister's office that were drawn last month have deepened with Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Nabam Tuki indirectly accusing governor J.P. Rajkhowa of "working with the BJP".
The rifts first began to appear when Rajkhowa commented on corruption in the state soon after being sworn in as the governor in June. Their differences widened after Rajkhowa wrote to the Prime Minister's Office in October, seeking an upgrade of the airport at Lilabari in neighbouring Assam instead of building a greenfield airport at Hollongi, nearly 70km from Itanagar, to save compensation costs.
Last month, Rajkhowa said he had written to the PMO after failing to get a response from Tuki. The governor also commented on the state's poor road and transportation system on several occasions. Raj Bhavan also issued a statement recently after Rajkhowa got stuck in an elevator "for a dreaded period of three minutes without light and fan inside the lift, leading to suffocation" because of a power outage.
The statement said if the governor "is subjected to such a state of affairs, one can imagine what will happen to the other citizens".
After a lull, Tuki asked Rajkhowa to restrain himself and wrote to Raj Bhavan that "being misused by the state BJP and affiliated organisations as BJP headquarters to prepare strategies and conspiracies towards dislodging the democratically elected government".
Tuki's letter said the "position (of the governor) warrants that the incumbent remains a father figure who acts as a guide and mentor to the chief minister and the council of ministers in taking the state forward in all respects". But according to the present perception, "a parallel government is being run by Raj Bhavan", wrote Tuki.
The chief minister added that Rajkhowa was "aware that everyone in our country, whatsoever position he may be holding is under the Constitution and no one is empowered to insult or belittle the Constitution of India".
Tuki also accused the governor of behaving against the democratically elected government. He said such allegations were used by political rivals and accused Rajkhowa of writing to the PMO "to stop various important projects and funds for the people of Arunachal Pradesh on the pretext of unfounded complaints from various politically motivated quarters".
Tuki's letter also broached the subject of dissidence within the ruling Congress.
Citing examples of the governor allegedly bypassing him on matters of governance, Tuki requested that he "desist from all such activities, relieve the people of Arunachal from doubts and apprehensions" and earn the "respect of the people which your esteemed and dignified predecessors had held in the past".