Modi baiting Gujarat governor Kamla Beniwal transferred to Mizoram

Gujarat governor Dr. Kamla Beniwal has been transferred to Mizoram for the remainder of her term while Mizoram Governor Vakkom Purushothaman has been made the Governor of Nagaland, according to a communique sent by the Rashtrapati bhavan. Beniwal, who is a former member of the Congress party, had often been at loggerheads with then Chief Minister Narendra Modi, most famously over the appointment of a state Lokayukta. [caption id=“attachment_1605685” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Image from IBNlive[/caption] In August 2011, Dr Beniwal appointed Justice RA Mehta as the Lokayukta under Section 3 of the Gujarat Lokayukta Act, 1986, which gives the governor the right to appoint Lokayukta without consulting the government, when there has been an extreme delay in making the appointment. In so doing, Beniwal bypassed the Narendra Modi government of Gujarat, which had not appointed anyone to the position since 2004. In the run up to the Lok Sabha election, Modi had often criticised Beniwal. On occasion he said that it was his great regret that despite his state’s Governor being a woman, she hadnot signed off on a law proposed by his government that reserves 50 percent of all seats in local bodies for women. “We could not implement it because our Governor has withheld her signature,” he said. “It is our misfortune that the bill is stuck although we have a woman Governor.” A report in the Hindu has said that Rajasthan governor Margaret Alva will discharge the functions of Governor of Gujarat in addition to her own duties until regular arrangements for the office of the Governor of Gujarat are made.