Afresh war of words ensued between chief minister Mamata Banerjee and governor Jagdeep Dhankhar yet again with Miss Banerjee protesting against his “uncorroborated judgements” and “insinuations against the state Police and the state government” and reiterating that Mr Dhankhar is “an executive nominee of the President” while she was “an elected representative of the people of West Bengal.”
Responding to Mr Dhankhar’s note to the director general of police Virendra and his twitter post, Miss Banerjee today shot off a nine-page letter stating that it has “extremely upset, anguished and disillusioned” her. She accused of “excessive and blatant attempts at usurpation of Constitutional mandates and unwarranted excesses” by Mr Dhankhar.
On Mr Dhankhar’s comments on the state’s law and order situation, which he had referred to as “safe haven to terror, crime, flourishing illegal bomb-making corruption”, Miss Banerjee wrote that the statements were without evidence and absolutely baseless and may cause unnecessary panic among people and cause loss of life as well as added that law would hold the governor responsible.
She pointed out to Mr Dhankhar that since he is the Constitutional head he cannot be a representative of any political party. She also cited a host of instances from the Constitution and the Supreme Court judgments on the governor’s role and limitations wherein he cannot interfere in the daily affairs of the state government.
On Monday, Mr Dhankhar had lashed out at the police chief for sending him a “two-line” reply to his queries about the state’s law and order situation and also summoned him.