JOIN USTrinamool’s worries resurface with Guv Bose’s tough talk
The Trinamool Congress is evidently unhappy with West Bengal Governor C V Ananda Bose, hinting at a possible emerging rift between the ruling party, and the Raj Bhavan.
The latest trigger for Trinamool’s apparent irritation is a Raj Bhavan release issued on Sunday that offers Governor Bose’s response concerning the attack on the convoy of Nisith Pramanik, Union minister of state, home affairs,
Jago Bangla, Trinamool’s mouthpiece, on Monday, carried a piece, The question will arise, on its editorial page, questioning the governor’s statement. The editorial alleged that the present governor is attempting to emulate Jagdeep Dhankhar, the past governor.
The editorial states that on Sunday night, the Raj Bhavan issued the governor's statement, all of a sudden – the subject being Pramanik. It added that the governor has demanded that the accused will have to be punished. The question gets raised at the point, the write-up adds, as the governor is giving a statement after listening to the version of the BJP alone.
The party’s newspaper asks what Governor Bose conveyed by talking of a “confidential enquiry" and how he reached a conclusion by talking to the minister only, and whether he will talk to the state administration to know what was the actual situation. The people of Bengal are expecting the governor to act neutrally as the constitutional head, the editorial piece added, besides raising other concerns.
The Raj Bhavan, on Sunday, had shared the governor’s response “after his confidential enquiry into the dastardly attack on the convoy” of Pramanik, and “subsequent demand from many quarters for the imposition of Article 355 of the Constitution of India, in the state”.
The eleven points that were mentioned as part of the response, warned that “anti-social elements which try to take law into their hands will be dealt with sternly. Violence will be rooted-out ruthlessly. The statement warned that the governor will not be “a mute witness to any deterioration of law and order” in the state, any time, anywhere. “As Governor, it is my duty to ensure that West Bengal does not slip into a ‘soft state’. Rule of law will be established with an iron fist in a velvet glove. Democracy will not be allowed to degenerate into mobocracy,” the statement had said.
Bose had taken charge of the office in November last year. Earlier in February, speaking at a private university, he had praised Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for her literary efforts. At the Republic Day function (also the day of Saraswati Puja) at Raj Bhavan, Bose had formally initiated himself into learning the Bengali language, with Banerjee as the ‘guest in chief’. The state BJP leadership had not been at ease with the earlier developments.