Assam CM Gogoi to raise Governor removal issue with Prime Minister

Guwahati: After writing to the President, Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Monday said he would also raise the issue of Governor Padmanabha Balakrishna Acharya's removal with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"I will take up the matter with the Prime Minister and request him to remove Acharya as soon as possible. Ultimately, the Prime Minister has to give his consent," Gogoi told reporters.

The state government wants a permanent Governor instead of Acharya, he added.

"He (Acharya) is a man, who is misusing his office and working like a RSS Pracharak. That office should be treated with dignity. But he is playing divisive politics from there," Gogoi said.

On November 28, the Chief Minister sent a letter to President Pranab Mukherjee for his immediate intervention to replace Acharya, who is holding the additional charge of Assam along with Nagaland.

In his letter to Mukherjee, Gogoi alleged that Acharya has "converted his office into an annex of BJP office" and continuance of him as in-charge Governor of Assam would cause immense difficulty in functioning of parliamentary democracy system and create fissures in the secular ethos of the state.

On November 21, Acharya stoked a controversy with his reported "Hindustan is for Hindus" remark and his attempt to clarify next day with a comment that Indian Muslims are "free to go Pakistan", escalated the row, sparking a demand for his removal by Gogoi.

Gogoi even said the Governor "does not know how to maintain his dignity" as the Constitutional head and his statement exposed his communal mindset as well as of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government.

Last week, the Assam Pradesh Congress Committee took out a rally in Guwahati demanding dismissal of the Governor.