Governor hits out at ‘tainted’

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Just a day after Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar took the oath of office, Governor H.R. Bhardwaj took a dig at him saying some ministers with a ‘tainted record’ had been inducted into the new cabinet ignoring his advice.

Speaking to reporters at Raj Bhavan, Mr Bhardwaj said: “An effort should have been made to clean up the administration which has not happened. There are still some people in the government who have tainted records and are fighting court cases”.

“I told them to keep out some of those who are facing cases. They (BJP leaders) said they will look into it, but they said their high command has decided the ministers’ list,” said Mr Bhardwaj who had stopped short of openly criticizing the previous Sadananda Gowda government though his relations with the Yeddyurapa government were anything but cordial because of the scam cases the former CM was involved in.

“Mr Shettar is a lawyer and is generally spoken of well in Karnataka. There are no allegations against him too”, said the Governor as an afterthought. He expressed the hope that the new CM would have a smooth tenure.

Heaping praise on Sadananda Gowda Mr Bhardwaj said: “I wasn’t happy when he was asked to resign.”

The former Union law minister said there was no doubt that administration under Mr Gowda was improving when he was asked to step down. “He was slowly and steadily moving towards providing clean governance.

The BJP wanted a leadership change and it was a party matter. As Governor, I had to oblige,” he said. He said the country cannot afford to have tainted people in office, but he could really do nothing to stop this from happening.

“I can always guide, advise and suggest, but ultimately it’s their government. So whatever list they sent me in writing, I approved it,” he said.