West Bengal Governor alleges top state officials ‘boycotted’ his meeting

There seems to be a continuous publicly visible confrontation between the Raj Bhavan in Kolkata, and the Mamata Banerjee led state administration. West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar, on Wednesday, alleged that the “boycott” of a governor’s meeting by two top officials in the state government is a “constitutional lapse”.

A thread comprising three tweets was posted from Governor Dhankhar’s official twitter handle on Wednesday. These posts include a photograph and a video that shows the Governor sitting alone, with two vacant seats next to him. Two nameplates on the table indicate that the seats are marked for the state’s chief secretary and the director general of police.

In the video clip, Governor Dhankhar reads out his message that has also been posted as text. In the tweet, Governor Dhankhar has stated that the chief secretary and the director general of police did “boycott” the governor’s meeting for a second time in three days, and this is “actionable incondonable constitutional lapse by top officials”. Dhankhar added that in West Bengal there’s “law of ruler not of law” referring to an observation of National Human Rights Commission.

A second tweet of the Governor considers Chief Secretary’s, and the DGP’s “conduct aggravated by lack of response and habitual defiance of directives” from the Governor. “Rather than ‘uphold the supremacy of the Constitution and democratic values’ these officials have violated essence of democracy,” he adds.

Governor Dhankhar mentions, “Constitutionally ordained ‘to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution and the law’ would now ensure that CS, DGP get into constitutional groove.” Raising a serious allegation against the state’s top officials, Governor has stated that the officials “have spinally damaged the reputation of top services.

The governor, on January 8, had first directed the Chief Secretary and DGP to brief him with a written report on January 10. This was concerning the alleged ill treatment of Suvendu Adhikari, leader of the opposition in the state legislative assembly.

Suvendu was allegedly stopped by state police force from reaching Netai, in Jhargram district to attend a programme. Tweets by Governor Dhankar over the next few days, as a follow up, continued, before Governor Dhankhar raised serious allegations on Wednesday.

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