Toeing the line of the Left Front in West Bengal, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) government accused the Governor M K Narayanan of being political after he dubbed the recent clashes at Bamanghata as “some kind of goondaism”.

Reacting to the governor’s remark, Panchayat and Public Health Engineering Minister Subrata Mukherjee said, “He has spoken like a politician. People will misunderstand his comments because he is appointed by the Congress. His statements will only provoke the public.”

“Had he wanted details of the incident, he should have sought a report from the government and should have spoken after looking at it,” Mukherjee told reporters at the Writers Building on Thursday.

“Maintaining law and order is the responsibility of elected representatives of the state. His statement will not go down well with the people,” he added.

Mukherjee’s reaction came after Narayanan had earlier said, “This is not a good political culture. I think some sort of goondaism is going on here. The last few days have been very disturbing and distressing. This violence should not have taken place. We should not tolerate the violence. This is not acceptable.”

“It is the duty of the administration and the police to take action against those who are responsible. There is clear evidence against the guilty. They have to be impartial,” he had stated.

Confrontation with the governor is not a new thing in West Bengal politics. During the Left Front rule, Front chairman Biman Bose had said: “A governor should stick to his job. He has constitutional rights and duties. But he cannot write letters to a company like Tata. Is it his duty? We have never seen a governor writing letter to an industrial house. But why communicate with the Tatas?”