New Delhi: The Union government has decided to get aggressive with its plans to change governors and the heads of some key organisations, and is seeking opinion from legal and constitutional experts in case the incumbents refuse to resign on their own.
Sources in the government said the importance that the Centre attaches to this issue can be judged from the fact that PM Narendra Modi and Union home minister Rajnath Singh held detailed discussions on the matter on Friday.
It was decided at the meeting that the government should not stop merely at changing some governors, but will ask all ministries and departments to prepare a list of all organisations and bodies under their jurisdiction to ascertain if they are headed by people owing allegiance, specially politically, to the previous Congress-led UPA government.
“The government is determined that not just governors or heads of key organisations should be replaced, but other bodies under different ministries, if headed by those appointed by the previous government, should also be changed. All aspects on this issue, particularly legal, are being examined and the move will gain momentum once the Budget Session of Parliament is over,” an official said.
Sources said the government was closely examining the 2010 Sup-reme Court order that broadly said governors cannot be replaced with a change of dispensation at the Centre.
While two Governors, B.L. Joshi of Uttar Pradesh and Shekhar Dutt of Chhattisgarh, have already quit, some others have refused. Two Governors, Ashwini Kumar of Nagaland and M.K. Narayanan of West Bengal, have conveyed that they are willing to step down.
Mr Narayanan, who met home minister Rajnath Singh, is understood to have sought some time to take a decision and requested the Centre that no pressure be put on him in this period. A former IB director, Mr Narayanan had served as former PM Manmohan Singh’s national security adviser before going to West Bengal as governor.
