West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday engaged in a letter war as she accused him of repeatedly interfering in the administration of the ministries, and crossing the limits of constitutional dharma and elementary norms of constitutional behaviour.
Dhankhar, in his reply, described Banerjee’s missive as “Outrageously factually wrong and constitutionally infirm”.
Dhankhar wrote that “perhaps this is not the first factual tripping at your end”. He indicated firmly that that there has been total failure from the Mamata Banerjee’s end all through with regard to the compliance of constitutional prescriptions as the constitutional head.
He further said that no communication has been shared with him with the chief minister indicating that an interaction cannot take place “because the entire state machinery is now engaged in fighting COVID-19”. He termed this kind of alleged act as outrageous, misreading view of the Indian constitution.
Jagdeep Dhankhar further asserted that the Governor is not expected to be in “sleep mode” when the state is facing stressful challenges.
In the strongly-worded letter, the West Bengal Governor also compared ministers of state government as “loose canons”.
Further targeting Mamata Banerjee, Dhankhar asserted that the Constitution does not allow any constitutional functionary to be “law unto oneself” and the state cannot be run like a “fiefdom”.
In her hard-hitting seven-page letter, Banerjee had reminded Dhankhar that she was an “elected” Chief Minister and he a “nominated governor” and charged him with ignoring advice of her council of ministers.
“You appear to have forgotten that I am an elected Chief Minister of a proud Indian state. You also seem to have forgotten that you are a nominated Governor. You may continue to ignore all advice and inputs given by me and my council of ministers (as you appear to have taken upon yourself to do since the day of your appointment). But at least you should not ignore the wise words of Babasaheb Ambedkar,” she said.
Quoting Ambedkar, she said: “Powers of the governor are so limited that very few would come forward to stand for election.”
The chief minister asked Dhankhar to judge for himself whether his direct attacks on her, the council of ministers and officers, “your tone, tenor and language, which, in the mildest words of extreme moderation, deserve to be characterised as unparliamentary”.
She said Dhankhar’s holding of press conferences against the state government, his “repeated and constant interference in the administration of my ministries and departments, make it clear as to who has flagrantly transgressed constitutional dharma and even basic norms of decency between constitutional functionaries”.
Banerjee, in the letter, gave verbatim a communication she had sent to the Governor, and an SMS as also a letter Dhankhar had written to her.
“Your expostulation leaves me with no option but to release these letters in the public domain to leave it to the people of this state and of this nation to judge for themselves as to who has done what and who is in breach of the elementary norms of constitutional behaviour,” she said.