Delhi abuzz with rumours of special powers to Governor

New Delhi: The question doing rounds in the national capital is whether the Union Home Ministry has given any advice to the Governor of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana ESL Narasimhan on the law and order situation in Hyderabad. The Telugu media is abuzz with hearsays of Governor getting special powers under Section 8 to control law and order situations in Hyderabad. However, officials refuted any such thing.

“The Governor has repeatedly been advised to continue to monitor the situation in Hyderabad on his own just as he has been doing ever since he took charge as Governor. There is nothing for us to confirm here beyond this. If we have given any advice contrary to this, the Governor would know and accordingly deliver goods,” sources in the Home Ministry said. They went ahead to add that media would be kept posted of any developments in this regard.

For a fair measure, it was added, that the situation, as of today, did not warrant any intervention as the ‘Governor was capable of dealing with the situation’. “However, there is persistent demand from the AP government to issue some instructions or an order to the Governor in this regard at least as a saving measure. It is a political demand and the decision does not rest with us. We go with what our masters tell us,” said an official.

Officials at the Law Ministry also kept mum on whether they were undertaking any exercise towards the direction of issuing any instructions to the Governor. Reacting to the ‘situation’, veteran Congress leader Digvijay Singh said no one should violate the law and the Constitutional provisions and any undue interference in the federal structure would not be tolerated. “Whatever are the provisions of the Reorganisation Act, they should be implemented. However, the Centre could intervene to advise the two seasoned leaders - K Chandrashekar Rao and N Chandrababu Naidu - to come to terms with the ground realities,” he said.

Otherwise, Rao and Naidu together could resolve the dispute on their own, he said. Reacting to the reports of bestowing law and order powers on the Governor, CPI general secretary S Sudhakar Reddy said the issue was not a dispute between the two States, but that of cash-for-vote case. It was wrong to project it as a dispute between the Telugus or the governments even, he said, urging the parties concerned to abstain from continuing such a campaign.