AIADMK crisis: Governor Vidyasagar Rao get on a plane to Chennai, do your job

One of the questions that would baffle most Indians is what exactly is the role of a governor and where are they when needed. Which is not very often but on those rare occasions where this colonial remnant has a federal duty to perform and is missing it is then worth asking why we need to keep them on the taxpayer’s dole with incredible perks and privileges. [caption id=“attachment_3273202” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Tamil Nadu Governor Vidyasagar Rao. Sachin Gokhale/Firstpost[/caption] Take Tamil Nadu Governor Vidyasagar Rao when he ostensibly rushed to Delhi to get a bead on how to resolve the Sasikala issue and then lammed back to Mumbai instead of Chennai. Video footage of the VIP cavalcade taking him to the airport underscored the filthy splendour for these people and yet, while he could attend a wedding in Delhi he still cannot make it to Chennai to clear the mess the state is in politically. This is a perfect example of the wastage that these grandiose real estate groundskeepers engage in and their total inability to take any sort of executive action without literally being held by the hand. What Rao should be doing is sitting in Chennai where there is a crisis and not just mediating a peaceful solution but using the legal precedence to dissolve the crisis and take a decision. That is why, Sir, you are the governor. It is high time India stopped this nonsense and just sent an emissary from Delhi to the state that needed an emissary to settle issues. We truly do not need these citadels of self indulgence when they cannot even come to grips with a situation in which they have an executive role. As it is they have to gallop off to New Delhi to be briefed and even then they do nothing. Look at the confrontational situation in Tamil Nadu. The main party is splitting down the middle. There will be desertions of MLAs from both sides. The law and order part of it is on a very dry powder keg. Now, that the recently dumped Chief Minister OPS Panneerselvam has got his cojones back and is taking on Sasikala we are looking at probable public confrontation and a stirring of emotions in a state that takes its politics very seriously. If the DMK and other opposition parties begin to build the tension it could get out of hand. And this split is a gift for them, like manna from heaven. It requires very little to ignite that spark in a public that feels very teed off that it is treated shabbily by the Centre. And where is the governor? Sitting on Malabar Hill several hundred miles away. Where is the parallel crisis in Maharashtra? This is not a piece on whether Sasikala will weather the storm or why OPS so meekly stepped down and has suddenly decided he has spit in the eye and is a man not a mouse. This is a piece asking a simple question. Why do we have governors who really don’t even know what they are supposed to do…they have neither the knowledge nor the background and are largely handed these sinecures to have a wonderful time. At the expense of the public exchequer. Suggest you get on that plane Governor Rao and get stuck in and earn your perks. The fact that you will go from one Raj Bhavan to the other and that the Centre does not even think that the role is vital enough so you can be the big boss in both states underscores the point. The Supreme Court decisions are mutually exclusive from the governor showing some sense of responsibility. For seventy years after Lord Mountbatten we are still engaging in federal feudalism and foolishness.