Kiran Bedi, Lieutenant-Governor of Puducherry, is on a collision course with Chief Minister V Narayanasamy; and political parties in the Union Territory, both ruling and opposition, are united in demanding her recall.

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh has been apprised of her “rigidly autocratic, unethical, whimsical and dictatorial style of running the administration by overlooking the popularly elected government”, in a memorandum submitted to him. Bedi, however, is firm that she will demit office only on 29 May 2018, when she completes two years as L-G.

In the mid-summer election to the Puducherry Assembly, the Congress, in alliance with the DMK, won an absolute majority. Instead of electing one of the MLAs to head the government, the Congress leadership imposed former Union minister of state in the Manmohan Singh government, Narayanasamy, as the Legislature Party leader.

Unsure of getting elected to the Assembly within the stipulated six months, he allowed Bedi, who assumed office as Lieutenant-Governor when the new government was in the process of taking charge, a free run of the administration.

Proud of her earlier position in the police and aware that the Chief Minister was insecure, she started calling officers to Raj Nivas, giving suo motu policy directions and even threatening them, with scant respect to the elected representatives.

According to the Puducherry Union Territory Act of 1963, the Lieutenant-Governor of the Union Territory should function as per the advice and guidance of the Cabinet. Bedi made the Act stand on its head.

The turf war between the Lieutenant-Governor and the Chief Minister began with Bedi withholding approval to some popular schemes announced by Narayanasamy in the Assembly. Since old-age pension beneficiaries were finding it difficult to withdraw money from banks, the Chief Minister, in association with banks, announced a scheme to disburse the money at their doorsteps. It was to take effect from December but Bedi withheld approval.

About 4,000 old-age pensioners and 21,000 differently-abled beneficiaries were affected. The government raised the MLA Local Area Development Fund to Rs 2 crore in the budget. Bedi cut it to Rs 50 lakh. The proverbial last straw that broke the camel’s back was the cancelling of the 2 January circular issued by the Department of Personnel and Administrative Reform banning official communication on social media, claiming it contravened guidelines, rules and policies in force.

“If Puducherry has to be a progressive UT, it cannot be retrograde in communications,” said Bedi in a Twitter post on 4 January. Bedi has WhatsApp groups for communication with officials and social media remains her favourite mode of interaction.

Narayanasamy justified the circular expressing security concerns. On several occasions neither the Chief Minister nor the ministers concerned had any knowledge of orders issued by Bedi. Rajnath Singh must rein in Bedi.