Tamilisai & Kumudben: Identical tale of two controversial governors

The Raj Bhavan in Hyderabad has been frequently hitting the headlines since Tamilisai Soundararajan took over as Telangana Governor on September 1, 2019.

When she came up with a couple of initiatives — launching a grievance box at the main gate of the Raj Bhavan on January 1 and holding a Mahila Darbar on June 10 this year on the same premises — Tamilisai had apparently taken her fight with the KCR government to the next level.

The Federal webinar: Should post of Governor be scrapped?

Her appointment as the second governor of the country’s youngest state soon after the general elections had a significant political context. Though ESL Narasimhan was appointed governor of the undivided Andhra Pradesh during the Congress-led UPA regime, the succeeding NDA government allowed him to continue in office as governor of Telangana for five years after the state bifurcation.

During Narasimhan’s tenure, K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) of the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) had no issues with the Raj Bhavan until he ceded ground to the BJP in the parliamentary elections on his home turf. KCR was seen as a friend of the Narendra Modi government during the latter’s first stint.

Also read: Governor Tamilisai’s remarks on TRS govt irresponsible: Telangana minister

However, when KCR turned belligerent against the Modi regime, trying to stitch up a third front by mobilising the support of non-BJP parties across the country, Tamilisai stepped into Telangana’s Raj Bhavan with an agenda apparently to embarrass and irritate the KCR regime. This has resulted in a confrontation between KCR’s Pragati Bhavan and the Raj Bhavan.

The two governors

The running feud between the Chief Minister and the Governor reminds one of Kumudben Manishankar Joshi, who held the gubernatorial office from November 26, 1985, to February 7, 1990. Joshi headed the Raj Bhavan at the time when Rajiv Gandhi headed a Congress government at the Centre and his political rival and movie mogul N T Rama Rao of the Telugu Desam Party was leading the government at the state level.

Kumudben died on March 14  this year, at the age of 88.

Similar backgrounds

Kumudben and Tamilisai seem to have identical characteristics with similar proclivity to court controversies. Both the women, coming from vibrant political backgrounds, were chosen to head the Raj Bhavan much against the wishes of the heads of the elected governments of the day.

Tamilisai became interested in politics from childhood, having been brought up in a political family. Her father Kumari Ananthan was a senior Congress leader in Tamil Nadu. She was elected as a student leader while she pursued medicine at Madras Medical College. She served the Tamil Nadu BJP unit in various capacities, starting from south Chennai district medical wing secretary in 1999, state general secretary of medical wing in 2001, all-India co-convener of the medical wing for the southern states, the BJP state general secretary in 2007 and state vice-president in 2010. Later, she was elevated as national secretary of the party in 2013.

Kumudben, hailing from Changa Dhonari in Gujarat, served as the second female governor of Andhra Pradesh after Sharada Mukherjee. She was preceded by Shankar Dayal Sharma and succeeded by Krishan Kant. Like Tamilisai, Kumudben too came with an active Congress background. She had served as deputy minister for information and broadcasting (1980-82) and deputy minister of health and family welfare (1982-84) in the Congress governments at the Centre.

Kumudben occupied the gubernatorial office much before the heat of the infamous episode of Ram Lal (her predecessor) — which saw the ouster of a popular government headed by NT Rama Rao through the backdoor — had died down.

Subramanyam Dogiparthy, a political analyst, sees both Tamilisai and Kumudben on the same page. What Kumudben did during the tenure of NTR, Tamilisai is trying to do now — wishing to run a parallel administration to the KCR government with her own political agenda, Dogiparthy told The Federal.

Women’s issues, a common theme

One of the central themes that serve as a common thread is their focus on women’s issues.

Tamilisai convened Mahila Darbar expressing concern over a spurt in crimes against women in eight years of KCR rule. According to National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data, Telangana recorded 2,382 rape cases in 2021. The sexual assault on a Romanian minor girl near a pub in Jubilee Hills, involving the sons of the state home minister and a lawmaker of the All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), and two other minor girls in the Old City area of Hyderabad, acted as a trigger for Tamilisai’s Mahila Darbar.

Similarly, Kumudben had launched a drive to free joginis — religious sex slaves — in Andhra Pradesh from the clutches of the age-old practice. Her crusade led to the banning of the jogini system in 1988. Kumudben even strived for the rehabilitation of women slogging as sex workers for generations.

She activated the state unit of the Red Cross Society of which she was the ex-officio chairperson and the chief minister, the vice-chairman. She wanted the government to release a grant of Rs 10 lakh, a request that was turned down by the NTR government. She also issued a public appeal for contributions for her social activities.

Kumudben also launched two social organisations — the National Institute for Social Action (NISA) and Chetna — both of which have their offices in the Raj Bhawan.

While Kumudben, soon after taking charge, travelled to all 23 districts in the state on a record 108 occasions, Tamilisai too is on a similar mission.

What had particularly angered NTR was Kumudben’s presence at a function in which Uma Raju, wife of TDP MP Anand Gajapati Raju, announced her decision to join the Congress (I). With this, her outreach programmes earned her criticism from NTR’s party — that the Governor had turned Raj Bhavan into a “Congress Relations Office”.

Facing backlash

Though Tamilisai was denied protocol honours and minimum security arrangements, she visited Sammakka-Sarakka Jathara and Hindu temples at Yadadri and Bhadhrachalam. When she was denied even a helicopter to fly to Bhadhrachalam, she travelled by road.

Tamilisai’s outreach programmes evoke massive public response, which gains importance in the light of criticism that KCR is running the government from his farm house without easy access to common people. When the threat of COVID loomed over the state capital, Tamilisai visited patients in Gandhi Hospital and even held a review meeting with officials from the state government. When RTC employees struck work for several days, she attempted to end the stalemate by holding parleys with the transport minister and the officials.

Also read: I am not a rubber stamp Governor; CM should not be a dictator: Tamilisai

Tamilisai has been facing an expected backlash from the TRS government for her aggressive and proactive initiatives. The TRS government convened the annual budget session of the state assembly without inviting the Governor to deliver her customary address. The Chief Minister even skipped the At-Home programme held at Raj Bhavan after the Republic Day function.

The controversial R-day address

Coincidently, Kumudben’s Republic Day address had also kicked up a political storm at that time, forcing NTR to convene a meeting of his council of ministers, leading to a resolution seeking President R Venkatraman and Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi to “rein” her in.

In her 20-minute extempore speech in Hindi, Kumudben had said: “No state will be able to progress without the support of the Government of India in implementing development programmes.” She pointed out that the Union government spent Rs 4 crore daily at the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant and provided a subsidy ranging from 75 paise to Re 1 per head for the distribution of foodgrain.

While Kumudben, bearing the label of an “agent” of the Congress, forced NTR to pitch for the abolition of the governor’s system to upkeep the federal spirit of the country, Tamilisai, carrying the same “agent” label, has prompted KCR to revisit the demand made by his mentor.

Three decades on and there is no change in the governor’s raj. The only difference is the change of their masters at the Centre.