Governor H R Bhardwaj described his tenure in the State as a difficult one, recalling his relationship with former CM B S Yeddyurappa and the illegal mining case.
At a Meet the Press programme organised by the Bangalore Reporters Guild here, Bhardwaj said, “Governors have been criticised since Ramakrishna Hegde’s time. I am in the process of winding up my work here. There’s a new government that you have elected,” he said. He said he was not too keen on taking up this job in the first place.
“Governors are reduced to rubber stamps. I considered myself unfit for the job. When I was asked to take it up, I took two days to decide. It was my wife who urged me to take it up and you have to listen to your wife when you are alone without any political consideration. She said it was better for me than sitting idle,” he laughed.
“She said my health would also improve in the beautiful state of Karnataka, but it actually affected my health adversely,” he said.
“Yeddyurappa did not follow my advice when I asked him to drop Reddy brothers, though he was harassed by them. But now, Yeddyurappa and I are good friends. His children are promising and I have advised him to promote them in politics,” he remarked.
Bhardwaj alleged that the Reddy brothers had threatened him. “I never knew the brothers and had nothing to do with them. I was pained when they started harassing me. They asked me to come out of Raj Bhavan. However, I had some lawyers and press people who helped me out,” he said.
He added that he is writing about his ‘tumultuous rapport’ with Yeddyurappa.Bhardwaj defended his decision to recommend the dismissal of the Yeddyurappa government when asked about its conflict with the Supreme Court judgment in the Bommai case.
“Where can a Governor go if the legislature does not comply with the floor test? This is why the Bommai case became ineffective as presiding officers did not cooperate. Perhaps, this is a new question that needs to be answered by the Constitution,” he said.
He said he gave Yeddyurappa a second chance as a reconciliatory move. “I had to respect the Centre that asked me to give a second chance. Else, I would have gone without a job.”
Bhardwaj said he finds no problem in the Siddaramaiah government and lauded the recent slew of welfare schemes launched by him.
‘I want to retire’
Bhardwaj admitted that he wants to retire. “I don’t like the kind of politics that is there now, the kind that destroys the country. I don’t have the capacity to take it anymore,” he noted.
‘Express doing well’
Governor H R Bhardwaj lauded the efforts of newspapers in the freedom struggle. Remembering the contributions of Express publisher Ramnath Goenka, he said The New Indian Express has grown well. “I am happy that The New Indian Express here is doing very well,” he added.