Uttar Pradesh Governor Romesh Bhandari is to the Constitution what a reckless bus driver is to pedestrians. Both have scant respect for rules.The drivers can at least be taken off the road, but a delinquent governor like Bhandari - whose bizarre action of firing an elected chief minister and hiring his favourite has been condemned by the courts and thwarted by the state Assembly - continues to occupy his seat in the Raj Bhavan, thanks to his political mentors in Lucknow and Delhi. That brings into focus the urgent need to regulate the governors' terms of appointment which are, under the Constitution, an exclusive preserve of the Union Council of Ministers. It is imperative to strike at the root of this cosy nexus between political rulers at the Centre and the man in whom the executive power of a state is vested.Going by the increasingly federalist tendencies in the polity, there is no justification for the appointment of the governor to be put under the sole charge of the President who, in his turn, is bound by the advice of the Union cabinet. Article 155, guiding a governor's selection, should be amended to introduce a collegium approach. The task of shortlisting gubernatorial candidates may be left in the hands of a committee comprising the prime minister, the leader of the Opposition, the chief minister of the state concerned and the chief justice of India. The collegium, after sifting through names of candidates with proven and untainted record in public life, should present the President with a short-list of, say, three names from which he can make a choice. .preferred-source-banner{ margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom:10px;}However, to keep under check aspirants with a political agenda, there should be a strict qualifying clause debarring anyone who has held a political post in the previous five years. Bhandari may be a keen golfer but he could run amuck because governors are not put under any handicap.Published By: AtMigration Published On: Mar 9, 1998--- ENDS ---
