Don't let standards slip

Meghalaya governor V. Shanmuganathan has put in his papers as the governor of Meghalaya and with it also resigned from the office of the governor of Arunachal Pradesh, which he held as additional charge. A mere resignation may not suffice in this case as the charges of misusing the Raj Bhavan as a lecherous man and converting it into a “ladies’ club”, besides facing sexual harassment charges by a woman who appeared for a Raj Bhavan interview, constitute serious misconduct in high office. There is a clear case to pursue an investigation into the “affairs of state”, but given the record, the possibility is more of the matter being buried, as it was in the case of N.D. Tiwari, who was caught in compromising poses in the Raj Bhavan in Hyderabad when he was governor of Andhra Pradesh.

While individual cases of crass sexual behaviour of some who compromise the dignity of office as well as the residences of the titular head of states seem to be laid to rest with their resignation, the greater threat to the system is the slippage in standards of persons being appointed to hold the largely ceremonial post of governor. There have been corrupt governors who have misused their sinecure and politically active governors who have meddled in the administration of states at the bidding of their New Delhi masters. It is the emerging pattern that is a cause of major worry, with the north-eastern states providing too many poor examples in the recent past. In fact, this NDA government’s first appointee to a Raj Bhavan, J.P. Rajkhowa, was dismissed by the President after strictures from the top court over complicity in dismissal of an elected government. In a bizarre coincidence, he was governor of Arunachal Pradesh and his successor has now compromised the dignity of an office around which questions arise as to the need for their very existence.