The ongoing war of words between Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar and Mamata Banerjee Government intensified on Wednesday with the former complaining about the way the Chief Minister’s behavior left him “bewildered and stumped” on Tuesday and senior Ministers wondering whether there was a need of the post of the Governor at all.
Referring to the Tuesday’s incident when the two dignitaries twice came face to face without acknowledging each other’s presence during Constitution Day function at the Assembly House, Dhankhar accused Banerjee of “keeping aloof.”
He tweeted, “What struck odd about the strategy at the Assembly was that the leader of the House Hon’ble CM just kept aloof and took no step while I alighted or made way for floral tribute to Dr Ambedkar at his statue. I expected otherwise,” saying her behavior left him “bewildered and stumped.”
While senior Bengal Minister Partho Chattjerjee promptly retorted wondering whether the post of the Governor had become redundant his Ministerial colleague Chandrima Bhattacharya said a Governor’s conduct should be commensurate to his high post and should not resemble that of a common man.
Dhankhar and Banerjee did not greet each other or make eye contact before or after the programme, even though they were present close to each other. When the Speaker Biman Banerjee, Opposition Leader Abdul Mannan and Left Assembly party leader Sujan Chakrabarty and other senior officials came out to formally see off the Governor once again he encountered the Chief Minister but the duo would not exchange formal greetings and simply looked the other way.
The Chief Minister subsequently a pained Chief Minister told the media about her feeling saying “even the Prime Minister smiles and talks when he meets me. He never behaves like this,” while Partho Chatterjee said “for the past few years the expenditure of the Governor’s House has increased several times. One wonders whether there is a need of the Governor’s post any further.”
Chandrima Bhattacharya complained against the Governor for referring to Prime Minister’s achievements only and not mentioning the name of the Chief Minister for a while.
“It is as if Prime Minister Narendra Modi has done everything and the Chief Minister has done nothing … his (Governor’s) attitude was such that he had come to belittle the Chief Minister during his speech … and remember that he is the Governor of this State.”
Earlier the Governor had said that the “Constitutional head of the state has been compromised.”
Following regular confrontations between the Nabanna (Secretariat) and the Raj Bhavan the TMC leadership had complained against the Governor to the Union Home Minister Amit Shah requesting him to teach him a lesson or two about his office.
Senior TMC leader and MP Sudip Bandopadhyay told Shah how Dhankhar had been running a parallel administration in the State disregarding norms of parliamentary democracy. “I have told Home Minister Amit Shah about how the honourable Governor had been running a parallel government breaking all the norms of parliamentary democracy,” Bandopadhyay said.