Bengal Governor must not block probe

Governor directing his staff to ignore police summons goes against rule of law

A new front has been opened in the continuing war between the West Bengal government and Governor C V Ananda Bose. It concerns the sexual harassment charges levelled against Ananda Bose by a female Raj Bhavan employee. The police has filed a case and constituted a special team to look into the charge. It has sought CCTV footage from Raj Bhavan and summoned some people working there. The Governor has dismissed the charge and decided not to cooperate with the investigation. He has directed all Raj Bhavan staff to ignore any communication from the police in connection with the case and barred the entry of the police into Raj Bhavan. He has stated that the state police cannot act in any manner to investigate or set in motion any proceedings against the Governor because the office enjoys immunity against such proceedings under the Constitution.

The charge against Ananda Bose may be true or false. It may well be part of a politically inspired plot against the Governor, as has been alleged. Ananda Bose has been on a confrontation course with the Mamata Banerjee government and there have been several run-ins between the two. The Lok Sabha election has made the confrontation more intense. But all that does not reduce the gravity of the charge and rule out the need for an investigation. A sexual harassment charge is very serious and the Governor cannot reject an investigation into it. Very often, the complaint is that such charges against powerful persons are suppressed or sabotaged. The Governor should not do that, especially when the charge is directed at him. 

It is doubtful if the immunity enjoyed by the Governor can be invoked in cases like this. There is a view that the immunity is only against criminal proceedings and not against investigation. It should be noted that an investigation was done in a sexual harassment charge against a former Chief Justice of India (CJI), Ranjan Gogoi, however unsatisfactory that investigation was. When investigations are launched against Opposition leaders or others, the usual refrain of the ruling BJP is that the charges are not political and that they should face the investigation and prove that the charges are wrong. There cannot be a different argument and principle in the case of a Governor, especially when the charge is of sexual harassment. Stonewalling the investigation would be doing a great injustice to the woman, if the charge is true. It is also ironic that the Governor hides behind the Constitution when there is a serious charge against him though he has exceeded the limits set by the Constitution and violated its spirit in his interactions with the state government.