- Only two Muslims currently serve as governors
- No Muslim now among eight lieutenant-governors
- Only three Muslims named governors since 2014
- Governors used/misused Article 356 over 125 times
Team Clarion
NEW DELHI – Sixty-one Muslims became governors, lieutenant-governors, and administrators out of a total of 673 that the states and Union Territories (UTs) had since Independence.
No Muslim is among lieutenant-governors in three Union Territories – Andaman and Nicobar, Delhi, and Puducherry – and five administrators, for the first time since 1977. Only three Muslims have become governors since 2014, the lowest-ever count in a decade. Currently, there are only two Muslims among 28 governors – Andhra Pradesh’s Justice (Retired) S Abdul Nazeer and Bihar’s Arif Mohammed Khan. After his appointment in 2024-end, Khan became Bihar’s first Muslim governor after 26 years, according to a new book, Muslims in India – Ground Realities versus Fake Narratives.
A right-wing publication called Khan, who had resigned from the Congress government following what he called its “pro-Islamist stance” on the Shah Bano case, “has taken over the years various politically incorrect positions on the issue of Muslims and political Islam.” He was Narendra Modi government’s only second Muslim governor, after Najma Heptulla. A grand-niece of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad and Deputy Chairperson of Rajya Sabha, she was sent by the NDA government to Manipur as governor from 2016 to 2021. The third one is Andhra Pradesh’s serving governor Justice Abdul Nazeer who was on the Supreme Court bench which gave the Babri Masjid verdict that allowed Ram Mandir to be constructed in Ayodhya.
Described as the ‘lynchpin of the Constitutional apparatus of the state’ by the Sarkaria Commission in 1988, the governor’s role ‘has emerged as one of the key issues in Union–State relations’ and gubernatorial independence, and the discretionary authority of the governor. As per Article 163 of the Constitution, the governor has some discretionary powers like decision-making power for the election of chief minister in a hung assembly, in no-confidence motions, and applying Article 356. Most governors were found to be misusing these rights.
Though the “misuse” of Article 365 continued for years, it was subsequently stopped following decisive intervention by the Supreme Court. In November 2022, P Raman, author of Strong Leader Populism: How Modi’s Hybrid Regime Model is Reshaping India’s Political Narrative, Ecosystem and Symbols, opined in The Wire: “After the politicisation of investigative agencies, taming the media and defanging statutory watchdog bodies, it is the turn of the Raj Bhavans to join the big mobilisation.”
The misuse of the office of the governor for partisan politics is as old as the Constitution itself. It began with the dissolution of the PEPSU assembly in 1953, barely three years after the Constitution came into force.” Soon after, Kerala’s first Communist government was dismissed on the recommendations of the governor under Article 356.”
Since Narendra Modi established his control over the administrative and political system in 2014, the “whole dictionary and grammar of gubernatorial etiquette has reversed”, he wrote. “In the BJP’s new winning strategy for Opposition-ruled states, governors became as crucial as raids by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) or Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). And suddenly, the governors posted in these states became aggressive. They began using every opportunity to publicly assail their state government’s decisions and portray them as anti-people.”
In the pre-Modi days, ruling parties at the Centre had never allowed this kind of unabashed gubernatorial activism, he said, adding “various governments over the years, including NDA’s Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s, did try to use governors for partisan ends.” He added: “Using governors as the ruling party’s political war horses to settle score with the opposition is a dangerous game. It amounts to weakening established traditions and constitutional order for narrow partisan ends.”
A governor acts as the Constitutional head and takes all their decisions based on the advice of the chief minister and their Council of Ministers. A lieutenant-governor or administrator is the constitutional head of the UTs. Their powers have been in place to ensure checks and balances for the State governments and their functioning. A governor is the constitutional head of a State, and is appointed by the President of India for a term of five years. As per Article 153 of the Constitution, every state must have a governor as the executive head of the State within the meaning of Article 153 and 154 of the Constitution.
Article 154 vests the executive powers of the State in the governor who exercises it either directly or through officers subordinate to him under the Constitution. Under Article 163, the governor, as the constitutional head, exercises all powers under the Constitution with the aid and advice of the council of ministers. It includes summoning and proroguing the sessions of the state legislatures, promulgation of ordinances, giving assent to the Bills and appointing the council of ministers. There are certain other functions exercised by the governor like sending a report to the President under Article 356 and withholding a Bill for consideration of the President under Article 254 (2).
The governor is the appointing authority in respect of the following authorities – Advocate General, Lok Ayukta and Upa Lok Ayukta, State Election Commissioner, Chairman and Members of the Human Rights Commission, State Public Service Commission, and Chief Information Commissioner and members of Information Commission. It is not smooth sailing in governor and chief minister relations. History is replete with instances where there were frequent run-ins of governors and L-Gs with the governments. Due to such incidents, negative terms like agent of the Centre, puppet and rubber stamps were used – and are still in circulation – to describe a person holding a gubernatorial post.
The Supreme Court in August 2024 ruled that unlike governors, an L-G is not bound by the aid and advice of the elected council of ministers in matters where parliament has law-making powers. After the 7th Constitutional Amendment in 1956, a governor can be appointed for more than one State. Articles 239 and 239AA of the Constitution delineate the powers and functions of the L-G and the chief minister in UTs.
Article 239 governs UTs directly administered by the President while Article 239AA specifically pertains to the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT), which has a unique hybrid governance model. An L-G in UTs without a legislature, holds legislative powers, including promulgating ordinances and administering laws enacted by Parliament. Article 356 of the Constitution allows the President to assume control of a state’s governance in the event of a Constitutional breakdown or failure of governance – also known as President’s Rule, State Emergency, or Constitutional Emergency.
Way back in 1988, the Sarkaria Commission recommended that Article 356 should be used in rare cases when it becomes unavoidable to restore the breakdown of constitutional machinery in the state. Recommendations have also been given by the Administrative Reforms Commission (1968), Rajamannar Committee (1971) and Justice V Chelliah Commission (2002). The Architect of the Indian Constitution Dr BR Ambedkar had assured in 1950 that it would remain a dead letter. In the 1960s, it was used 11 times. After Indira Gandhi came to power in 1966, Article 356 was used seven times between 1967 and 1969 alone. Indira Gandhi’s government used it 39 times against various states between 1966 and 1977, according to the website Legal Service India. Indira Gandhi imposed it 48 times, including four times during the 22-month national emergency.
Article 356 has been used/misused more than 125 times as per the latest data. In February 2023, Narendra Modi accused the Congress of trampling on the rights of states and regional parties by dismissing elected governments on “90 occasions”. In February 2023, the government said Indira Gandhi “misused” Article 356 of the Constitution 50 times to dismiss elected state governments. The Economic Times noted in an editorial in December 2019: “Since the governors are appointed by the President – clearly at the behest of the party in power at the Centre – and continue in office “during the pleasure of the President” as per Article 155 and 156, they have nothing to worry as long as they toe the Centre’s line.
However, “several NDA governors have let down the high office they occupy, and several governors in the previous five years have been engaged in a running feud with the state government concerned or even had differences with civil society activists.” In February 2023, The Times of India called the Maharashtra Governor since September 2019, Bhagat Singh Koshyari, a former BJP Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha member from Uttarakhand, as “the most controversial governor in the history of Raj Bhavan, courting controversies as a rule rather than an exception”. On occasions, different political parties ruled at the Centre and in the state, but none of these governors were accused of exceeded their brief.”
Only one had been a Muslim among Andhra Pradesh’s 24 governors. Assam had 28 governors which included three Muslims, the last being in 2009. Bihar had 30 governors including five Muslims, the last being Arif Mohammed Khan since 2024. Goa had seen 13 L-Gs with India’s first and only Muslim naval chief, Idris Hassan Latif, occupying the post twice, in 1983 and 1984. After it became India’s 25th state in May 1987, it had seen 19 governors of whom two were Muslims – Khurshed Alam Khan (1989-1991), and Mohammed Fazal (1999-2002). Gujarat had seen one Muslim governor out of 20 – Mehdi Nawaz Jung for five years from 1960. Haryana had 19 governors of whom two were Muslims – Saiyid Muzaffar Husain Burney (1984-1988), and Akhlaq Ur Rahman Kidwai (2004-2009).
When Himachal Pradesh had L-Gs, no Muslim was on the list. However, when it adopted the governor system, two were Muslims out of 21 – AA Khan (1977-1981), and Gul Sher Ahmad (1993). Jharkhand had 10 governors of whom three were Muslims, the last being from 2011 to 2015. In Karnataka, one had been a Muslim among its 20 governors – Khurshed Alam Khan who served for seven years from 1992. Kerala had seen 23 governors including four Muslims, the last, Arif Mohammad Khan, serving from 2019 to 2024. Madhya Pradesh had 20 governors including two Muslims, with one of them ending his tenure in 1998. Maharashtra’s 23 governors included four Muslims, the last being in 2004. Manipur too had four Muslims among its 18 governors. Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland each had one Muslim out of 20, 16 and 21 governors, respectively.
Rajasthan too had one Muslim among 22 governors who served in 2007. Tamil Nadu’s 16 governors had three Muslims including a woman, Fathima Beevi, India’s first female Supreme Court judge, who served from 1997 to 2001. Tripura and Uttarakhand had one Muslim each among their 20 and nine governors. India’s most populous and politically crucial state, Uttar Pradesh, had two Muslims among its 20 governors, once in 1972 and a second time in 1985. West Bengal had seen 28 governors of whom three were Muslims, the last of whom served from 1998 to 1999.
Odisha had 27 governors of whom seven were Muslims, the last serving in 1993. Two of Punjab’s 30 governors had been Muslims, the last serving from 1981-82. There has been no Muslims among Chhattisgarh’s six governors; out of 19 in Arunachal Pradesh, in Sikkim’s 15, and three in Telangana, India’s youngest state formed in 2014. Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Chandigarh, Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh have had no Muslims among their L-Gs – 14, 25, 10 and two, respectively. J&K as a state had seen 10 governors since Independence to October 2019.
Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR) had 21 L-Gs of whom one had been a Muslim – Najeeb Jung, who served as the 20th LG from 2013 to 2016 after being the 13th Vice-Chancellor of Jamia Millia Islamia for four years. Lakshadweep, a UT administered entirely as a single district with over 96 percent of its population being Muslims, has seen 35 administrators of whom two were Muslims – Wajahat Habibullah, from 1987 to 1990, and Farooq Khan, from 2016 to 2019. Puducherry, the third most densely populated UT consisting of four small geographically unconnected districts with a 33-member Legislative Assembly, has seen 24 L-Gs after the French colony, formed in 1674, was de facto transferred to the Indian Union in November 1954 – it was only in 1962 that Puducherry became officially an integral part of India. One of its L-Gs had been a Muslim – Sadiq Ali for a brief period in 1981.
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