The deteriorating chemistry between Raj Bhavan and Nabanna (the State secretariat) hit a new low with Bengal Governor KN Tripathi on Thursday strongly admonishing the ruling Trinamool Congress —for trying to malign his office —and asking its leaders to mop the stains off their faces before painting his actions as “unconstitutional.”
“They should go to the washroom, look at their faces in the mirror and remove the dirt from their faces,” a visibly irked Governor said in the sidelines of a University programme when asked to comment on some senior Ministers’ allegations that he was acting in an “unconstitutional” manner.
Tripathi said “they (Trinamool leaders) should stop throwing mud on the office of the Governor,” and engage in self introspection.
The immediate flash point was a letter from the Raj Bhavan to the Malda district administration wherein he expressed his desire to hold an administrative meeting to oversee the developmental works and general law and order situation.
Interpreting his action as a “direct interference” in the Government’s day-to-day business bypassing the Government senior Bengal Minister Partho Chatterjee earlier said “the Governor has gone beyond his jurisdiction mentioned in Article 153 of the Constitution by sending a letter to Malda district administration,” accusing Tripathi of “acting as a spokesperson not only of the Central Government but also the ruling party at the Centre.”
Picking up from what Chatterjee said on Tuesday another senior Minister Firhad Hakim on Wednesday said “the mud is not on the face of the Trinamool Congress but in the face of those who had engineered the Vyapam scam, those who had taken part in false shootout case and those decide what the people should eat and what they should not,” adding the Governor was “not speaking like a guardian of the State but like a political person.”
The State Government strongly protested such “unconstitutional use of constitutional offices like the way things had been done in Bengal,” Hakim said.
In 2017 Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had a direct run-in with the Governor following the Basirhat riots after Tripathi called her up and reminded of her constitutional duties. She later said that she had been “threatened” by the Governor.
Trinamool MPs like Derek O’Brien and Dinesh Trivedi had raised the recent issue at Parliament saying “the Governor cannot be the super Chief Minister.” They were likely to see President Ramnath Kovind on the issue, TMC sources said.
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