The Narendra Modi government has appointed the maximum number of women as governor and lieutenant governor since coming to power in 2014.
According to News18, since 2014, the Modi government has appointed eight women as governors and LGs, the highest so far.
Mridula Sinha, Draupadi Murmu, Najma Heptulla, Anandiben Patel, Baby Rani Maurya, Anusuiya Uikey, Tamilsai Soundarajan, and Kiran Bedi have been appointed as governor or LG since 2014.
The Manmohan Singh-led UP government has the second highest women appointments at six.
Among the women leaders, the NDA government has also picked a record number of members from the SC, ST and OBC members as governors and LGs.
Notably, five out of the eight women appointments to the post of LG and governor under the Modi government are from SC, ST and OBC as well as the minority community, reports said.
Modi vs other prime ministers: Here is a detailed breakup of women governor or LG appointments by all former prime ministers of India.
Under Jawaharlal Nehru, three women appointments were made. These included Sarojini Naidu, Padmaja Naidu, and Vijayalakshmi Pandit (Nehru’s sister). Under Morarji Desai, that figure came down to two with the appointments of Sharda Mukherjee and Jothi Venkatachalam.
Rajiv Gandhi appointed three women to the posts: Kumudben Joshi, Ram Dulari Sinha, and Sarla Grewal. Under VP Singh, only one woman (Chandrawati) was appointed.
When Congress formed government under the leadership of Narasimha Rao, Sheila Kaul and Rajendra Kumari Bajpai were appointed to office. The number of women appointees came down to one again during the tenures of HD Deve Gowda (who appointed Fathima Beevi) and IK Gujral (appointed VS Ramadevi) and Atal Bihari Vajpayee (appointed Rajani Rai).
During the the Manmohan Singh-led UPA government at the Centre, six women were appointed: Pratibha Patil, Prabha Rau, Margaret Alva, Kamla Beniwal, Urmila Singh, and Sheila Dikshit.
New appointments reflect respect, dignity for all
According to a report in News18, the choice of governors for the eight states on Tuesday is another reflection of Modi’s mantra of respect and dignity for all.
Amid a major reshuffle fo the Union Cabinet, President Ram Nath Kovind Tuesday approved the appointment of eight governors, including Union Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment Thaawarchand Gehlot as the new Governor of Karnataka.
The other appointments include Mangubhai Chhaganbhai Patel, who has been named as the Governor of Madhya Pradesh, Hari Babu Kambhampati as the Governor of Mizoram, Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar as the new Governor of Himachal Pradesh.
While Kambhampati succeeds PS Sreedharan Pillai, who has been transferred and appointed as Governor of Goa, Arlekar replaces Bandaru Dattatraya who has been transferred and appointed as Haryana Governor, it said.
Satyadev Narayan Arya, Governor of Haryana is transferred and appointed as Governor of Tripura, while Tripura Governor Ramesh Bais has been transferred and appointed as Governor of Jharkhand, according to a Rashtrapati Bhavan communique.
With inputs from agencies