Bengal governor, mamata in increasing war of words
Jagdeep Dhankar and the Bengal CM have been at loggerheads for some time now.
Governor of West Bengal Jagdeep Dhankar and state Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee are engaged in a heated war of words and it is unlikely to die down anytime soon.
In his latest salvo, Dhankar has accused Banerjee of disrespecting him and the constitutional post of the Governor on the day the country was celebrating its 70th Constitution Day.
Dhankar, in his tweet attacking Banerjee, said, “I attended the Constitution Day programme at the Assembly, digesting indignities to the high office only because the day is very special to all of us. I am sure there would be soul searching. The address delivered by me is documented and reflects utmost restraint.”
He also accused Banerjee of not extending courtesy to the Constitutional post of the Governor.
He said, “I would never ever compromise on extending courtesy to anyone, much less the Hon’ble CM for whom I have enormous personal regard. Surprisingly, she made no expected move, leaving me bewildered; was stumped. All including Amit Mitra, Partho Chatterjee, and Abdul Manan were greeted by me.”
Dhankar also accused Banerjee of keeping the Governor waiting to speak on Constitution Day.
He said, “Called upon members to soul search at the sequence of events that compromise the position of the Constitutional head. How can a Governor be made to speak after others have spoken? Every time I seek to salvage the situation, they execute their script.”
The ruling Trinamool Congress was also quick to attack the Governor for “misusing” the Constitutional post to attack the elected government of the state.
Senior TMC leader and Education Minister of West Bengal Partha Chatterjee said, “The Governor should himself do some soulsearching because he is acting like the mouthpiece of the Bharatiya Janata Party. How can a nominated constitutional post be above an elected head of the government? Time has come to introspect whether we need the post of a Governor in any state.”
Mamata Banerjee also attacked the Governor, saying that the office of the Governor is trying to run a parallel administration in Bengal.
Speaking to reporters in Bengal, Banerjee said, “He (the Governor) is attention hungry; he does these little things from time to time to get attention from the media to save his job.”
This is not the first time such an ugly spat of words has broken out between the Governor and the West Bengal government. Even earlier, Dhankar had criticised the Mamata Banerjee government for not cooperating with him.
During the Governor’s tour of North Bengal last month, no staff from the state administration in North Bengal attended the meeting called by the Governor and the Governor said that administrative officers failed to attend because they were instructed to do so from Nabanna (state Secretariat).
The West Bengal Governor had also been critical of the Mamata Banerjee government in the past. He had raised questions about the “lackadaisical” attitude of the state government in providing relief to the people in the cyclone-hit areas of Bengal last month.
Dhankar had also voiced his opinion about the lack of the state government’s attention to the strike by ad hoc teachers in the state.
Not just this, the West Bengal Governor had also been critical of the state government and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in particular even during the Durga Puja carnival, where Dhankar had said that proper courtesy had not been extended to the Governor with regard to the sitting arrangement done by the state government.
Why did both Sonia Gandhi and Rahul boycott the Maharashtra swearing-in ceremony? Clearly, both have reservations about tying up with the hardline Hindutva outfit, Shiv Sena. In Sonia’s case this line of thought is consistent because it was during her watch that the party went in for an obvious pro minority tilt. However, during Rahul’s term as party chief there was a course correction which saw him undertake a fair amount of temple tourism and reiterate his Hindu identity. However, Rahul too chose to skip sharing the stage with Uddhav Thackeray, ostensibly for fear it would cut into his “secular” image. Which makes one wonder if there will be yet another relaunch of Brand Rahul with some new packaging. Of all the Congress Chief Ministers who were invited only Kamal Nath made it to the venue. One reason for this could be that he enjoys a close rapport with NCP chief Sharad Pawar.
The NCP also reciprocated by giving him a seat right next to Pawar on the dais. But one wonders why other Congress CMS chose not to attend.
It is not without its irony. The term Khan Market Gang was first coined by the late Arun Jaitley (in a more indulgent note than its current usage) for the group of young MPS who were often seen lunching at Delhi’s Khan Market instead of hanging around Central Hall. (Later this phrase was upgraded by the Prime Minister to the Lutyens Delhi lot to denote a power elite that no longer calls the shots.) But interestingly, Jaitley used to refer to NCP leader Supriya Sule and her friends who were part of the lunch brigade, for Supriya has an enviable cross party network of MPS (and ex MPS) cutting across party lines, from Neeraj Shekhar, Sushmita Dev, Madhu Yaskhi Goud, Manvendra Singh, Nishikant Dubey, Kanimozhi, Harsimrat Badal, Dimple Yadav, Nishikant Dubey and Anurag Thakur. Well, it’s clear where Supriya gets her networking skills from, for if anyone who could bring the Congress and Shiv Sena together, it is her dad Sharad Pawar.