Guv Vigilante?

With her moves as lieutenant governor, Kiran Bedi continues to provoke the ruling Congress

- Lakshmi Subramanian

In Puducherry, the turf war between Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi and Chief Minister V. Narayanasamy has intensified. On July 4, much to the dismay of the ruling Congress, Bedi administered oath to three persons nominated to the assembly by the Union government. The BJP’s Puducherry unit president V. Saminathan, its treasurer K.G. Shankar and educationist S. Selva Ganapathy were sworn in as MLAs, despite Speaker V. Vaithilingam having informed Bedi that the assembly had not received “any communication from the competent authority” regarding their nomination.

Bedi, however, insisted that she had acted in accordance with the Government of Union Territories Act, 1963, which says the Centre “may nominate not more than three persons, not being persons in the service of Government, to be members of the Legislative assembly of [the Union territory].” The Congress, however, alleged that she was helping the BJP, which had drawn a blank in the assembly polls last year, gain backdoor entry into the assembly.

“The [actions of the] office of the governor in Puducherry is a classic example of how the BJP is using governors as pawns to disturb democratically elected governments,” said Congress leader S. Jothimani. “Bedi even went to the extent of stopping files related to farm loans and old-age pension, which are directly linked to people’s welfare.”

Soon after the three MLAs were sworn in, parliamentary secretary K. Lakshminarayanan moved the Madras High Court requesting a stay on their nomination. The court, however, refused to grant it, and issued notices to both the Union home ministry and the state government. The case is still pending.

“The speaker has not allotted us seats in the assembly,” said Saminathan. “This is only because we will oppose the government and bring out the corruption here, like our lieutenant governor [has been doing].”