With no love lost between Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar the Bengal Assembly may on Friday turn out to be an arena of confrontation between Raj Bhavan and Nabanna (State Secretariat).
This particularly became clear after Dhankhar on Thursday dropped hints of a history being created “when I will address the Assembly tomorrow.” The Governor has already drawn flak from the Trinamool Congress Government for reportedly expressing his desire to go through the Budget before its being laid on the table.
“I have been in politics for the past several decades but never saw a Governor acting like this. Never saw a Governor wanting to read the Budget before its being tabled in the House. It seems that he is working with some purpose,” State Law Minister Chandrima Bhattacharya said on Friday.
Though the State Government had been trying for the past a few days to reach out to Dhankhar with senior Minister Partho Chatterjee meeting him at the Governor’s House and the Government offering him the State chopper —which it had refused on earlier occasions — for a short trip to Shantiniketan the Governor tended to be in no mood to forget previous altercations.
“There were learned governors before me, they all were iconic people but when I address the Assembly tomorrow I will be making history. My predecessors were all born before Independence and I am the first Governor to be born after the Independence. I will create history tomorrow,” the Governor said raising eye brows.
According to established practice the Governor reads out the speech prepared by the State Government which includes its own policies in the said speech.
However, Dhankhar reminded that he too was within his rights to put in his own views.
The State Government was well within its rights to put forth its achievements in the Governor’s address to the House, he said. “But as Governor, as constitutional head of the state, I have also my own rights and I have given my suggestions (accordingly). I won’t disclose what those suggestions were. I think it will be incorporated in my speech. I will act as per the Constitution,” he maintained.
His comments came a day after he had said that he might make changes to the speech he is scheduled to read out at the beginning of the Budget session on February 7.
The TMC promptly reacted with Bhattacharya accusing the Governor of deliberately trying to create problems. “We all know he is deliberately trying to create trouble and that is why he has crossed his brief on several occasions. He is acting as per orders of the central Government,” the Minister said.
The State Government and the Governor had not been in good terms ever since he took charge last year. The face off commenced after Dhankhar alleged ignored the Government’s advice and personally went to rescue Union Minister Babul Supriyo to Jadavpur University where he was gheraoed by the agitating students.
Thereafter on a number of occasions both sides traded charges alleging non-cooperation and interference in each other’s domain.
The Chief Minister often alleged that the Governor was acting as a BJP’s agent and was running a parallel Government at the instance of New Delhi.
However the Chief Minister extended olive branch a few days ago offering the state helicopter —which was earlier denied to him — for trips to Shantiniketan and Farakka. “We hope things pass off peacefully keeping in view the lofty tradition of our State,” said a Minister.
