Uttarakhand governor Aziz Qureshi said Thursday he would consider resignation only if he got a call from the President or the Prime Minister or ?the party president?. The call came from the union home secretary, he said.
?There is a proper way for doing anything,? he told The Indian Express. ?Why should I resign on the call of a home secretary? There is a certain dignity to my post and I am not saying I will necessarily resign but I may consider it only if I get a call from the President or the Prime Minister or the party president,? said Qureshi, who has a Congress background and whose term as Uttarakhand governor ends on May 15, 2017.
Of the two controversies he was involved in during his brief tenure in UP, one was about the Mohammad Ali Jauhar University (Amendment) Bill that he cleared, granting minority status to the university in Azam Khan?s constituency of Rampur.
?I cleared the Bill within the framework of the Constitution. The Bill had been pending for long and I did not take any arbitrary step. I consulted the advocate general. I gave assent after being convinced. I don?t know why the previous governor did not,? said Qureshi.
He stressed he was aware of the rules, citing his political experience of 40 years. ?I was not dropped by parachute into politics. I have worked close with the people in Madhya Pradesh. Unlike others, I do not belong to an affluent family, I am from a middle class family,? he said.
The other controversy was about a comment attributed to him ? ?Even God cannot stop rapes in UP? ? which he has denied. Qureshi said the government had tried to remove him based on that statement.?I got a call from the home secretary on July 31 and he asked me to resign over this statement,? he said. ?I sent the recording of the entire event to the President and even the home ministry and after looking at the CD in its entirety, they were convinced it was not my fault.?
