Arunachal Pradesh governor Jyoti Prasad Rajkhowa was removed from the office by President Pranab Mukherjee on Monday. A Rashtrapati Bhavan communique said that J.P. Rajkhowa shall cease to hold the office of the Governor of Arunachal Pradesh and has appointed V. Shanmuganathan, Governor of Meghalaya, to discharge the functions of the Governor of Arunachal Pradesh, in addition to his own duties, until regular arrangements for the office of the Governor of Arunachal Pradesh are made.
Rajkhowa, who was appointed the governor of Arunachal Pradesh on May 12, 2015, was the first gubernatorial appointee of the Modi government and has also been sacked by it after informing the President that it has “lost trust” in him.The sacking was imminent after Home Minister Rajnath Singh conveyed during a meeting with President Pranab Mukherjee last Wednesday that Rajkhowa’s position had become untenable and he had lost the centre’s confidence after the Supreme Court’s observations against him over dismissal of the Congress government in the state.
The home minister’s meeting with the President came after Rajkhowa refused to step down despite a nudge by the Centre to put in his papers after the Supreme Court passed serious strictures against him over the dismissal of the Congress government last year.A defiant Rajkhowa had said he would not step down but was ready to be sacked.
“I want the President to dismiss me. I will not resign. Let the President express his displeasure. Let the government use provisions of Article 156 of the Constitution,” the governor had told a Guwahati-based TV news channel on Monday.
