DC Edit | Governors need to act in spirit of federalism

Have there been suggestions of a newer and, should we say, smoother approach to federalism in the functioning of States in which governors do have a role as the eyes and ears of the ruling party in New Delhi? While this has been historically true for decades now, particularly in States not ruled by the party in power at the Centre, whether it was the Congress-led UPA or the BJP-steered NDA, it is apparent that various issues have cropped up in governors going beyond their constitutional remit more often in more recent times, say in the last 10 years. A few governors, seen to be reluctant to sign legislation passed in the Assembly into laws, have been known to take undue shelter by referring bills to the President to further delay the process after sitting on the legislation in the guise of having them examined by legal experts on their constitutional propriety or simply returning the bills for reconsideration without assigning strong reasons for doing so. Notwithstanding the expression of deep dissatisfaction with the actions of a few governors, including one who was outright pulled up for acting against federal principles in referring a plea for remission of a Rajiv Gandhi assassination case convict to the President instead of signing on the will of the Assembly, there have been actions by governors that have tended to deny the spirit of cooperative federalism that is supposed to rule the relations between the Centre and the states. A few governors, who did not see eye to eye with states on how they function, have moved on or been moved out while senior leaders are coming in with greater political experience who might help smoothen ties in a fractious environment, especially at this time when the NDA with a Narendra Modi 3.0 government has just taken office.