Hansraj Bhardwaj, 82, former Governor of Karnataka and Union Law Minister, passed away in Delhi on Sunday. He was ailing for the past few days and breathed his last in a private hospital.
One of the longest serving Law Ministers of the country, Mr. Bhardwaj was Karnataka Governor between 2009 and 2014. A Congressman, he was among the long-term loyalists of the Nehru-Gandhi family.
The tenure of Mr. Bhardwaj as Governor here was stormy that saw confrontation with the then BJP government headed by B.S. Yediyurappa. The fact that Mr. Bhardwaj had recommended President’s rule twice when Mr. Yediyurappa was the Chief Minister had not gone down well with the BJP, which petitioned the then President Pratibha Patil to recall him. Mr. Yediyurappa was asked to prove majority twice in the legislature in a span of three days.
While he particularly hit out at Mr. Yediyurappa’s government for its alleged failure to curb illegal mining and attack on churches, the petition by Mr. Yediyurappa termed him as “behaving like an Opposition leader”.
He also referred a complaint to the Election Commission seeking disqualification of the Reddy brothers of Ballari from the Assembly for alleged conflict of interest. Later, he also accorded sanction for prosecution against Mr. Yediyurappa by the Karnataka Lokayukta under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, for his alleged involvement in illegal mining. The High Court later intervened to provide relief to Mr. Yediyurappa.
The BJP government and Mr. Bhardwaj were at loggerheads not only over the appointment of the Lokayukta after he rejected the candidature of the former Chief Justice of Kerala High Court S.R. Bannurmath, but was also accused of withholding important Bills passed by both Houses of legislature. He had also created a controversy by withholding permission to accord honorary doctorate to writer late M. Chidananda Murthy.
Several leaders, including Mr. Yediyurappa and the former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda, condoled the death of Mr. Bhardwaj.
