Governor Complains To PM About Violation Of Protocol

Telangana Governor Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan today expressed her displeasure over the attitude of the State government, saying that the government should respect the Constitution and its bodies.

The Governor was in New Delhi to meet the Prime Minister, and spoke with the media after the meeting with the PM.

According to sources, Soundararajan reportedly discussed with Modi the political developments prevailing in Telangana and submitted a report to him.

She is also reported to have brought to the PM's notice the repeated slights being meted out to her, though she denied it.

Interacting with the media, Soundararajan questioned the negligent attitude of the State's Chief Secretary towards implementing the protocol due to her office, and asked if the Chief Secretary didn't know the basic rules of the protocol for her programs.

The CS, of course, acts on the instructions of the ruling dispensation, so it was clear who was really in her crosshairs.

For the unversed, of late, the gap between Soundararajan and KCR has widened, and the violations of protocol, the one during the Budget session of Assembly where the KCR government conducted the sessions without an inaugural speech by the Governor being a particularly nasty example, have become hot topics in political circles.

The CM and his administration have also been staying away from the official programs of the Governor, in more violations of protocol. And most recently, Soundararajan did not receive any invitation to attend the official Ugadi celebrations of the government at Pragathi Bhavan, the Chief Minister's camp-office-cum-residence.

It is no wonder then that the Governor is more than miffed.

When the media brought up a provocative act of her own, the rejection of TRS leader Padi Kaushik Reddy's proposed nomination under the Governor's MLC quota, Soundararajan said that she had felt that there was no ground to consider his name for the MLC post under the service sector.

While she could be right, it certainly didn't help her relationship with KCR. (And Reddy anyway became an MLC through another route.)

The Governor dutifully added that she had no ego or enmity towards anyone, and that all leaders, including the Chief Minister and ministers, could visit the Raj Bhavan at any time and bring problems to her notice.

"In general, I am not a controversial person and don't want to indulge in disputes," she said.

Just to establish context, she was the head of the BJP in Tamil Nadu, and at the peak of her political career, when she was made Governor of Telangana, a state where the BJP is going hammer and tongs at the ruling TRS.