Kolkata: West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar is never too far away from a controversy, and the events in the state since 7 May — when he sanctioned the prosecution of four of Mamata Banerjee’s current and former cabinet colleagues — are the latest example.
Within 10 days of getting Dhankhar’s approval, the Central Bureau of Investigation arrested two serving ministers, Firhad Hakim and Subrata Mukherjee, and two former ministers, Madan Mitra and Sovan Chatterjee, in connection with the Narada sting operation case.
The senior leaders’ colleagues in the Trinamool Congress have questioned the governor ’s authority to approve their prosecution, but the Calcutta High Court, in its order dated 17 May staying their interim bail, said “sanction for prosecution was granted by the competent authority”.
Then, there is the issue of political violence in the state that has claimed numerous lives. Dhankhar had kept tweeting about the “deteriorating” law and order situation in Bengal before the elections, and even summoned top government officials and sought reports from them. After the Trinamool won its third successive term in the election results declared on 2 May, Bengal saw yet another spate of political killings, allegedly triggered by members of the ruling party, and Dhankhar began actively touring the violence-hit areas.
Trinamool leaders allege the governor is “trying to build a foundation for the Narendra Modi government to harass Mamata Banerjee”. But Dhankhar told ThePrint that as the constitutional head of the state, he could hardly ignore the spate of post-poll violence, and that his appeals to the CM to take measures to contain the violence didn’t yield any results.
Political observers and Constitution experts, meanwhile, say though the governor did not do anything ‘illegal’ by sanctioning prosecution of the Trinamool leaders, he should have refrained from going on political visits accompanied by BJP leaders.
Also read: Dragged by wire, head smashed, hacked — gory stories of post-poll violence in Mamata’s Bengal
Sitalkuchi and Nandigram visits
Dhankhar called CM Mamata his “younger sister” after administering the oath of office at Raj Bhavan, but immediately after the swearing-in ceremony on 5 May, he criticised the government for “failing to stop post-poll violence” in the state. In a series of tweets, Dhankhar said the state is witnessing complete “lawlessness”.
Concerned at alarming situation. Call upon @MamataOfficial to follow constitutional norms & rule of law.
Police @WBPolice @KolkataPolice @HomeBengal must take all steps to maintain law & order.
Sad- situation is being allowed to drift with no tangible action by authorities.
— Governor West Bengal Jagdeep Dhankhar (@jdhankhar1) May 17, 2021
Message @MamataOfficial “Total lawlessness & anarchy. Police and administration in silence mode. Hope you realize repercussions of such lawlessness and failure of constitutional mechanism.
Time to reflect and contain this explosive situation that is worsening minute by minute.”
— Governor West Bengal Jagdeep Dhankhar (@jdhankhar1) May 17, 2021
Invited attention @MamataOfficial “On channels and in public domain I notice arson and pelting of stones at CBI office. Pathetic that Kolkata Police @KolkataPolice and West Bengal Police @WBPolice are just onlookers.
Appeal to you to act and restore law and order.”
— Governor West Bengal Jagdeep Dhankhar (@jdhankhar1) May 17, 2021
Less than a week later, on 11 May, Dhankhar’s Twitter handle announced he would be leaving Kolkata by a BSF helicopter on 13 May to visit “post poll unprecedented violence affected areas” like Sitalkuchi and other places in Cooch Behar, “to connect with sufferers”.
Governor West Bengal Jagdeep Dhankhar will be leaving Kolkata by BSF Helicopter on May 13 to visit post poll unprecedented violence affected areas @MamataOfficial #Sitalkuchi and other places in Coochbehar to connect with sufferers.
— Governor West Bengal Jagdeep Dhankhar (@jdhankhar1) May 11, 2021
On 12 May, the CM wrote a letter to him, calling the proposed tours “violative of standard protocol”.
But Dhankhar went anyway, accompanied by BJP MP Nisith Pramanik, and also visited camps in Assam where violence-affected villagers from neighbouring Cooch Behar have been housed.
Then, on 15 May, he visited the areas in and around Nandigram in Purba Medinipur, with local BJP MLA Suvendu Adhikari, who had defeated Mamata Banerjee in the most high-profile electoral battle.
Many images and clips of the governor emerged after these visits — riding pillion on a scooter, breaking down in tears while talking to villagers, and mentioning religion as the cause of violence in some areas.
After visiting the shelter-camps in Nandigram, a tearful Dhankhar said: “The chief minister called Sitalkuchi incident (a separate incident on 10 April when central forces killed four people who were allegedly attacking them inside a polling booth) as genocide. But has she even seen the situation of people here? This kind of incident never happened in India before.”
This is far from the first time the CM and Governor Dhankhar have butted heads since he was appointed in July 2019. In fact, Dhankhar’s predecessor Keshari Nath Tripathi too had visited some riot-affected areas such as Asansol during his tenure.
The BJP says a governor’s work starts when law and order breaks down in a state. “Bengal is witnessing a situation of lawlessness. Anybody can kill anybody here, vandalise houses, and there will be no police intervention if the victim belongs to an opposition party. In such a situation, the governor needs to be proactive. Who will listen to the victims if he does not?” BJP’s national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya said.
Also read: Bengal violence was well-conspired, police and admin didn’t do anything to stop it, RSS says
TMC alleges governor has ‘ambitions’
Calling Dhankhar’s actions “political subservience”, Trinamool MP Sougata Roy said the governor is “paying his personal debts”.
“We do not have a problem with his ambition. We understand that he has his ambitions, as next year, we are going to have a vice-presidential election. But more than his personal ambition, it seems that he is serving his masters to pay his personal debts. Long back, he overstepped his constitutional boundaries and crossed the limits of being politically partisan in his approach. Now, his only aim is to destabilise Mamata Banerjee’s government,” said Roy.
“He (Dhankhar) is surely building a case for Modi to harass the new government in the state. But, President’s Rule seems a far-fetched idea now. There are many guidelines and conditions laid down by the Supreme Court through multiple judgments on the imposition of President’s Rule. So, it is not easy. Moreover, he (the governor) does not matter to the people of Bengal. He has lost his credibility,” the Lok Sabha MP from Dum Dum added.
Another TMC MP Sukhendu Sekhar Roy said Dhankhar’s actions are just “political optics” to make PM Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah happy.
“Has anyone heard BJP’s state president Dilip Ghosh or its leader of the opposition Suvendu Adhikari speak in recent times? They don’t because the central leaders do not need them. Dhankhar only does the work of opposition leader. He and the CBI are the weapons of Modi and Shah to draw their political conspiracy against Mamata Banerjee,” the Rajya Sabha MP alleged.
‘Nothing illegal, but looks partisan’
Constitution experts and political analysts say Governor Dhankhar didn’t do anything “illegal” by sanctioning prosecution for the ministers, but he should have refrained from travelling with BJP leaders.
Prof. Amal Kumar Mukhopadhyay, political scientist, Constitution expert and former principal of Presidency College (now Presidency University), told ThePrint: “The governor has not done anything wrong by approving prosecution for the ministers. The governor has the authority to do this when the state assembly is not in session. Moreover, he did not ask the CBI to arrest them. He only sanctioned the prosecution. What the Trinamool Congress is doing now by criticising the governor publicly and protesting against him on the streets is unfortunate.”
He added: “In Bengal, nobody goes by democratic values. Police arrested three BJP MLAs when they were protesting against the lack of Covid management measures by the government in Siliguri. But nobody was arrested when senior leaders and ministers led hundreds of Trinamool cadres to the court and to the CBI headquarters. So, it is a peculiar state. Why does a party need to resort to such unthinkable violence when it has a huge mandate? So many people have been killed across the district since the results. The responsibility lies with the ruling party.”
Mukhopadhyay, however, said Dhankhar could have avoided touring violence-hit areas with BJP leaders.
“The governor has gone to some areas to meet the families, but he should have refrained from moving with BJP MLAs and speaking in a manner that makes him look partisan.”
Also read: Am alive, 1,300 km away, says journalist BJP video claimed was killed in Bengal violence
‘Made repeated appeals to CM’
ThePrint sent a detailed questionnaire to Governor Dhankhar for his comments on the latest set of controversies, and he responded.
“The state of West Bengal, 2 May onwards, has suffered unprecedented post-poll retributive violence on a scale that never happened earlier. The premise of violence is shocking and sickening. It is to punish in democracy those who ‘dared’ to vote against the ruling party. Such targeted violence by ruling party workers with impunity with no fear of law and state apparatus in support is an indelible taint on our democratic fabric and affront to constitutional essence and values,” he said.
Dhankhar also said he had tried to raise the issue with CM Mamata Banerjee numerous times. “As constitutional head, I invited the attention of the chief minister to the alarming scenario numerous times and urged that she must take imperative steps by sending a stern message to administration and police that if this alarming situation of rampant post poll violence and vandalism is not contained they would be held accountable. Nothing of the kind happened.”
He added: “A legally untenable narrative was floated that till she took oath, she could not function. This alibi has no legal force, as the Model Code of Conduct having been lifted from noon of 3 May, she had all the powers and duties as before. The turning point in my taking the decision to visit post poll-violence affected areas was when in the first cabinet meeting of the state government held on 10 May, this issue was not even averted (sic),” the governor said.
Commenting on the fact that he was accompanied to Sitalkuchi and Nandigram by a BJP MP and MLA, respectively, he said: “I do not see a political party tag of the representative of the people — be it MLA or MP. Only to indicate that while once I was going from Cooch Behar to Bagdogra by helicopter, I invited MP Smt Nusrat Ruhi Jahan, who was staying at the same place and planning to go to Siliguri, to accompany me on the chopper.”
He, however, refrained from commenting on the Trinamool’s allegations about his “political ambitions”.
(Edited by Shreyas Sharma)
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