Resignations Spike: 5 Years of Jumping Ship - Or Walking the Plank

The last couple of years saw many prominent public officials resign their offices, in silent or vocal protest against the NDA 2 government. Many speculated that some of the exits were forced so the government could save face after historic policy failures such as demonetisation and the cow protection racket.

Many major institutions of the country witnessed this flux and instability; they and the public had to bear the cost of this uncommon practice of authorities stepping down in droves.

Reserve Bank of India

Differences between the RBI and the government are common, but with Urjit Patel’s departure from the central bank tensions appear to have risen to unprecedented heights. Patel, like Raghuram Rajan before him, cited personal reasons for resigning. Ranjan, a respected economist, recently told the media that attention must be given to Urjit Patel’s worrying walkout and the reasons behind it.

Name	Designation	Appointment	Resignation	Reason
Urjit Patel	24th RBI Governor	September 4, 2016	December 10, 2018	Personal reasons (Resigned before the completion of his term in September 2019)
Raghuram Rajan	23rd RBI Governor	September 4, 2013	September 4, 2016	Wasn’t offered a second term; wanted to return to academia

Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council

The EAC is meant to give advice and views on economic policies and issues to the government, especially the Prime Minister’s Office. With Arvind Subramaniam citing personal reasons for his resignation, many remarked the trend of competent officials leaving their positions under NDA 2. Surjit Bhalla left while voting for the recent Assembly elections was underway.

Name	Designation	Appointment	Resignation	Reason
Arvind Subramaniam	Chief Economic Advisor, Govt of India	October 16, 2014	June 20, 2018	Personal reasons; is believed to have been kept out of the loop for demonetisation
Surjit Bhalla	Part time member of Economic Advisory Councr	December 1, 2018	September 4, 2016	His spokesperson said “In his [resignation] request he had stated that he would be joining some other organization”.

 

NITI AAYOG

What was touted as the NDA 2’s replacement for the Planning Commission also saw a foreign-educated advisor step down. Speculation was rife about Vice-Chairman Anand Panagariya’s resignation two and a half years into his term. Among the theories: the RSS was unhappy with his recommendations, he was unhappy the PM wasn’t protecting him from verbal attacks by the RSS, or from additional power centres within the Aayog.

Name	Designation	Appointment	Resignation	Reason
Arvind Panagariya	Vice Chairman	January 2015	August 2017	Said he wanted to return to academics

 

Judiciary

The higher judiciary took centre stage early last year in a disturbing and unprecedented press conference, where the highest ranking judges of the Supreme Court told the public that “democracy is in peril”. Justice Gogoi confirmed that their public comments on the nature and prevalence of judicial corruption related in part to the assigning of a bench to hear a case indirectly involving former home minister Amit Shah. Against the backdrop of the ongoing NJAC v Collegium tussle, this moment of crisis spilled out into the open.

1. Press Conference by Supreme Court Justices

Name	Designation	Appointment	Resignation	Reason
Justice Ranjan Gogoi	46th Chief Justice of India	October 3, 2018	Term ends in 2019	Claimed democracy was in danger, and benches were being assigned to suit the government
Justice Chelameswar	Supreme Court Judge	October 11, 2011	Retired on June 22, 2018	Commented on judicial corruption and judicial independence
Justice Madan Lokur	Supreme Court Judge	June 4, 2012	Retired on December 30 2018	Was vocal about the problems in the bench and the need to hold a conference
Justice Kurien Joseph	Supreme Court Judge	March 8, 2013	November 29, 2018	Commented on the importance of transparency in the aftermath of the press conference

 

2. Resignations

 

Name	Designation	Appointment	Resignation	Reason
Justice Jayant Patel	Judge in Karnataka High Court	December 11, 2001	September 25th, 2017	Quit citing personal reasons. Was thought to have stepped down following the order of his transfer to the Allahabad High Court

Ministers and Bureaucrats

With many prominent ministers stepping down, stating reasons of dissatisfaction and poor upkeep of promises, the internal dynamics of the biased appointment and selection of ministers was brought to light.

Name	Designation	Appointment	Resignation	Reason
Upendra Kushwaha	Union Minister of State for Human Resource Development	November 9, 2014	December 10, 2018	Accused Narendra Modi of having betrayed Bihar. The RLSP chief caused a massive upset to the NDA government as he stepped out over
Sujatha Singh	Foreign Secretary	August 2013	January 2015	Claimed her tenure was curbed by order from the PMO. Her request for early retirement was rejected; references to the PM in her resignation letter weren’t allowed
Anandiben Patel	Chief Minister of Gujarat	May 22, 2014	August 3, 2016	Cited personal reasons and old age

 

Governors Appointed by the UPA

When the NDA 2 government came to power in May 2014, a slew of UPA appointed governors handed in their resignations. While many refused to comment on their reasons, others said the NDA 2 government had exerted pressure on them to leave office.

Name	Designation	Appointment	Resignation	Reason
Sheila Dixit	Governor of Kerala	March 4, 2014	August 2014	She claimed “I did what my heart said I should do”; reason speculated to be because of discussed shift to Mizoram
M.K.Narayanan	Governor of West Bengal	January 2010	June 30, 2014	Was asked to step down by the NDA government
Ashwani Kuma	Governor of Nagaland	March 21, 2013	June 27, 2014	Was asked to step down by the NDA government
B.L.Joshi	Governor of Uttar Pradesh	July 28, 2009; re appointed March 6, 2014	June 17, 2014	Was asked to step down by the NDA government
B.V.Wanchoo	Governor of Goa	May 2012	July 2014	Said Union Home Secretary Anil Goswami asked him to step down
Vakkom B.Puroshotham	Governor of Nagaland	September 2, 2012	July 11, 2014	Unhappy with transfer to Mirozam; said was not consulted
K.Sankaranarayanan	Governor of Maharashtra	January 22, 2010	August 24, 2014	Was transferred to Mizoram

 

Education

While the HRD Ministry and the IITs are supposed to work hand in hand, under the current government there has been a constant tug of war between the two. The directors of several IITs were seen not to be happy with some of the ministry’s decisions, which they said were taken without consulting or involving the institute authorities.

Name	Designation	Appointment	Resignation	Reason
R.Shevgaonkar	Director, IIT Delhi	2011	December 22, 2014	Cited personal reasons; media reports suggest he was unhappy because of pressure from the government to release salary dues to former faculty members and BJP leader Subramaniam Swamy
Anil Kakodkar	Chairperson, IIT Bombay	2006	March 22, 2015	Did not agree to the selection process adopted by the HRD Ministry for Directors of IIT Patna and IIT Bhubaneshwar
Mahesh Rangarajan	Director of the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library	June 2014	September 17, 2015	Resigned less than a week after his appointment by the UPA; under pressure he called “unethical and illegal” by Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma

 

Return of Awards Conferred by the State

A four month long campaign was begun in September 2015 by writers and filmmakers who returned their awards as a gesture of protest against the growing incidence of communal violence and the BJP government’s inability or unwillingness to protect free expression. Some 40 artists returned their awards.

SAHITYA AKADEMI AWARDS

Hindi

1. Uday Prakash
2. Ashok Vajpeyi
3. Krishna Sobti
4. Mangalesh Dabral
5. Kashinath Singh
6. Rajesh Joshi

English

7. G.N.Devy
8. Nayantara Sahgal
9. Keki Daruwalla

Gujarati

10. Anil Joshi

Punjabi

11. Waryam Singh Sandhu
12. Surjit Patar
13. Jaswinder
14. Gurbachan Bhullar
15. Atamjit
16. Baldev Singh
17. Darshan Butter
18. Ajmer Singh Aulakh
19. Mohan Bhandari

Rajasthani

20. Nand Bhardwaj
21. Ambikadutt

Kannada

22. Kum Veerbhadrappa
23. Rahamat Tarikere
24. Devanuru Mahadeva

Kashmiri

25. Ghulam Nabi Khayal
26. Margoob Banihali

Urdu

27. Munawwar Rana
28. Khaleel Mamoon

Malayalam

29. Sara Joseph

Assamese

30. Homen Borgohain
31. Nirupama Borgohain

Telugu

32. Katyayani Vidmahe

TRANSLATION PRIZES

Hindi

33. Chaman Lal

Kannada

34. GN Ranganatha Rao

Marathi

35. Ibrahim Afghan

YUVA PURASKAR

English

36. Aman Sethi

Punjabi

37. Pargat Singh Satauj

BAL SAHITYA PURASKAR

Telugu

38. M. Bhoopal Reddy

GOLDEN JUBILEE AWARD

39. Mandakranta Sen

Other prominent personalities who returned their awards:

1. Arundhati Roy, who returned her National Award for Best Screenplay won in 1989 for the film In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones

2. Kundan Shah, who returned his National Award for the film Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron

3. Saeed Mirza

4. Dibakar Banerjee

5. Anand Patwardhan

6. Dipankar Banerjee

7. Paresh Kamdar

8. Nishtha Jain

9. Kirti Nakhwa

10. Harshavardhan Kulkarni

11. Hari Nair

12. Rakesh Sharma

13. Indraneel Lahiri

14. Lipika Singh Darai

15. Vikrant Pawar

16. Rakesh Shukla

17. Prateek Vats

18. Cinematographer Virendra Saini

19. Ajay Raina

20. Cinematographer Ranjan Palit

21. Cinematographer Manoj Lobo

22. Filmmaker Tapan Bose

23. Filmmaker Sanjay Kak

24. Filmmaker Madhusree Dutta

25. Filmmaker Pradip Krishen

26. Vivek Sachidanand

27. PM Satheesh

28. Film Editor Irene Dhar Malik

29. Cinematographer Satya Raj Nagpaul

30. Filmmaker Shriprakash

31. Cinematographer Sudhakar Reddy Yakkanti

32. Film Director Rafeeq Ellias

33. Filmmaker Amitabha Chakravarty

34. Maithil filmmaker Tarun Bharitiya

35. Documentary maker Anwar Jamal

36. Cinematographer Sudhir Palsane

37. Cinematographer Abhimanyu Dange

38. Filmmaker Manoj Nitharwa.