Amid Bengal BJP’s disapproval of new Governor CV Ananda Bose’s allegedly “pro-Mamata Banerjee” lines, party’s national vice-president Dilip Ghosh on Friday advised him to take a lesson or two from Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar who was the State Governor from 2019 to 2022.
Already unhappy about his “pacifist” style --- unlike Dhankhar who had several run-ins with the Chief Minister and the ruling Trinamool Congress during his tenure --- the State BJP leadership was furious at Bose’s decision to hold his “Bangla Hatekhori” (initiation to Bengali letters) at the Raj Bhavan in presence of the Chief Minister.
Hatekhori is an age-old ritual in Bengali households wherein the children are introduced to Bengali letters for the first time in front of Goddess Saraswati. Hence it takes place on Vasant Panchami or Saraswati Puja day.
“It is not necessary that you would know everything from the beginning. So he (the Governor) should try to take lessons from his predecessor Jagdeep Dhankhar ji … I hope he will have a meeting with the Governor during his visit to Delhi,” Ghosh said.
Earlier, State Opposition Leader Suvendu Adhikari who skipped the Hatekhori programme calling it a drama scripted by the Chief Minister said “though I am no body to lecture the Governor about his functions I think he will be briefed about responsibilities when he is in Delhi.”
Hours after Bose got his first lesson of Bengali alphabet from a class three student Diyangshi Roy --- at Raj Bhavan where he was presented with a Varna Parichay (the basic book on Bengali letters) written by Ishwar Chandra Vidya Sagar --- he was summarily summoned to the national Capital on Thursday evening hours after and hours after Adhikari expressed his displeasure with him.
The TMC leadership immediately returned fire with spokesperson Kunal Ghosh accusing the BJP leadership of “trying to hijack the Raj Bhavan.”
He said, “the BJP is angry because the Governor is not towing the line of Dhankhar … they want to convert the Raj Bhavan into BJP party office which an intellectual of Bose’s strature is reluctant to do.”
Wondering whether there was any wrong in the Governor trying to learn languages or the Chief Minister attending a programme at his official residence TMC Rajya Sabha MP Shantanu Sen said, “if the Governor, wants to learn new languages where is a harm in it … if he invites the Chief Minister to witness a social programme at his residence where is his fault … the BJP does not believe in smooth functioning of the State and so it is trying to disturb the Governor … it wants to enslave the Raj Bhavan.”
Meanwhile, the Governor who was presently touring New Delhi on Friday visited a Bengali medium school where he watched Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Pariksha pe Charcha programme along with the students.
After the programme the Governor said that the Prime Minister was a great educator and a universal teacher.