No respect, no response: Governor breaks down state\'s attitude towards her office

HYDERABAD: “Governor’s office is not respected. Not responded.” In just a few words, Governor Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan on Thursday described how Raj Bhavan had been sought to be reduced to a non-entity by the state government in the three years she has been in office.

The Governor was interacting with journalists at Raj Bhavan after releasing a coffee table book, ‘Rediscovering Self Through Selfless Service,’ marking the third year of her in office and responding to a question on whether or not the government had responded to her letters or requests for helping the people

“If elected representatives do their jobs, then why will people come to Raj Bhavan,” the Governor asked. She said despite her letters to the government on the disheartening condition of students at IIIT Basar, or Telangana University, and on other issues, the government had not responded.

Dr Soundararajan who made it clear — she first addressed the people in Telugu, and then the media in English — that there was much that was wrong in how the government was treating her office. She said that when the state’s history was written, it would speak about “how a woman Governor was discriminated against. I was denied the Governor's Address (in the Legislature) and hosting of the National Flag on Republic Day. Even now wherever I go protocol isn't followed.”

She said the day she stepped into Raj Bhavan, she stopped being a politician. “Tomorrow some other person will sit in this chair. Will you follow protocol then? Why are you not following now? Is it because I am a woman, or is it because I am serving the people, or not obeying you? Why? Come out openly,” she said.

She said, “I have done justice to my duty, irrespective of the problems I face.” When people face problems, “we have to help, and reach out in any which way we can,” she said. “They cannot say where the Governor can go, cannot go, what she can do, or cannot,” when it came to reaching out to those who needed help.

“I am not one to reach out and make demands because I am a woman. But there is no problem that cannot be solved through interaction,” she said. To a question on why the Chief Minister’s pictures were not displayed at Raj Bhavan during the function, she said if that would solve the problem then she would have the picture put up. “Telangana and the whole world should see if what is happening in Telangana is correct,” she added.

To a question on what she thought of the Chandrashekar Rao government, she said “I am observing everything as a common citizen.”