A day after Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar tore into the state government and the Assembly Speaker while paying floral tributes at the bust of BR Ambedkar in the Assembly premises on Saturday, Speaker Biman Banerjee in his bid to turn tables, as it were, on the former, said on Sunday that he would see to it on whether the Governor would be allowed to visit the Assembly at his own discretion.
The Speaker’s Sunday assertions came on the heels after Dhankhar went ballistic and launched a scathing attack on the state government, including the chief minister and the Speaker in the Assembly on Saturday on various issues ranging from blacking him out in the Assembly, not furnishing details on Bills passed in the House despite writing to him, down to corruption, and the state’s civil servants’ recently forgoing a meeting with him which he had convened. He also took aim at the chief minister saying the chief minister had no idea about the Constitution which clearly defines that chief minister should be “accountable” to him.
The impact of this stinging attack was such that it was in sharp focus at the Republic Day parade on the Red Road too on Sunday, which was attended by the chief minister Mamata Banerjee and the Governor as well among others, where though the chief minister had exchanged courtesies with the latter but had dropped ample hint of her apparent disapproval of his conduct in the Assembly.
On Saturday the Governor had attacked the Speaker by saying that he did not send details of the proceedings in the Assembly on the Bills passed despite his having written to him repeatedly and also asserted that no files had been kept with Governor’s office as claimed by the Speaker.
On the other hand, the Speaker claimed that whatever the Governor had said were “untrue” and the Bills sent to him for his approval were kept pending for a long time keeping the government on tenterhooks on the fate of the Bills because the it was never known on whether the Bills had his assent or been sent to the President for his consent.