Rajkhowa-Tuki strife the worst thing to happen to Arunachal?
There is a constitutional crisis in Arunachal Pradesh, admitted governor JP Rajkhowa when I met him on December 17 at the Raj Bhavan with a disturbing demonstration raging outside. The state Congress Mahila Morcha workers, in their bras, were shouting slogans against Rajkhowa for “allowing” an unprecedented Assembly session in a makeshift venue that led to impeachment of speaker Nabam Rebia and ouster of chief minister Nabam Tuki as leader of the House.
This unheard of “naked” protest was led by a few senior cabinet ministers of the state government who alleged a constitutional breakdown in the state, engineered by the Raj Bhavan that preponed the Assembly session from January 14 to December 16.
This protest began at 2pm, few hours after the “composite Assembly session” voted out Tuki as the leader of the House and instead elected rebel Congress leader and “chief minister-in-waiting” Kalikho Pul by 33-to-0 votes in a makeshift Assembly hall under the supervision of the deputy speaker.
A day before that, on December 16, the Assembly complex was locked by the district magistrate and superintendent of police, who was appointed the previous night after an IPS officer sought clarifications from the speaker on his instructions to lock the legislature complex.
The entry and exit gates were put under siege by the 26 Congress MLAs led by Tuki in defiance of the governor’s order dated December 9, 2015 which specifically directed the deputy speaker, TN Thongdok, to preside over the first agenda of the first day — a resolution to impeach the speaker of the sixth Assembly, Nabam Rebia.
But speaker Rebia and chief minister Tuki termed the governor’s order unconstitutional and questioned his wisdom for setting the agenda of the House.
In his defence, Rajkhowa said, "When the file for the sixth session of the sixth legislative Assembly, to be convened from January 14, 2016 was sent to me on November 2, I had given my consent. However, on November 19, the leader of the Opposition sent me a copy of the notice, with a prayer to intervene for removal of the speaker, Nabam Rebia, which was submitted to the secretary, legislative assembly."
Governor Rajkhowa categorically stated that neither the speaker nor the secretary of the legislative Assembly bothered to inform his office of any such notice. "Instead, through media reports I came to know that another impeachment notice to the deputy speaker had been served by Congress MLAs on November 16," said Rajkhowa, who sought the details, through his office, of any such notice from the legislative assembly secretariat. But all attempts failed.
A seething Rajkhowa termed the “non-cooperative actions” of the speaker and the secretary of the legislative assembly an unprecedented constitutional breakdown. "Thereafter, I did what ought to be done to uphold the Constitution of India," said Rajkhowa who denied acting at the behest of the BJP, against the Tuki-led Congress government.
He went on to remind that it was the chief minister who has acted against the constitutional frameworks by refusing to respond to his queries and letters. "I wrote at least 19 official letters/ queries to his office since I took charge in June this year. However, the chief minister and his office never bothered to respond despite repeated reminders for a good four-five months. So far, I have received only two responses," alleged Rajkhowa while pointing at Tuki’s antics.
Simmering differences between Rajkhowa and Tuki came into the open in the end of October, after certain correspondences relating to the Hollongi airport was leaked to the media by government sources in which Rajkhowa urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to reconsider the decision to set up a greenfield airport in the state in view of the "high cost".
Allegedly, the governor maintained that the greenfield airport at Hollongi would cost about Rs 1,150 crore of which land compensation would be about Rs 500 crore, which shall largely benefit the family members of the chief minister, speaker and their kith and kin.
The governor has been accused of acting at the behest of the BJP and of being an RSS henchman which he has vehemently denied. "I am not a member of the RSS but there is nothing wrong to be a member of the RSS. It’s a good organisation," he had said in the past.
Rajkhowa is a tough nut to crack. So was he, decades ago when, as chairman of Assam State Electricity Board, he disconnected the power supply to the Nehru stadium, Guwahati, two days ahead of a floodlit match owing to an outstanding bill of Rs 2.48 lakh. When ordered to proceed on leave, Rajkhowa pulled out All India Service Rules and refused to budge.
"I have done everything within the constitutional framework of India," he insisted as I was stepping out the meeting room at the Raj Bhavan.
But later in the evening, once I reached my office, I came to know that the protesters, in the presence of few of the cabinet ministers, magistrates and other officials, had slaughtered a gayal (a large bovine) just outside the entry gate of Raj Bhavan as one more form of protests.