West Bengal governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on Friday condemned chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s remarks after BJP national president JP Nadda’s convoy came under an attack in Diamond Harbour on Thursday, and asked her “not to play with fire”.
Dhankhar on Friday sent a detailed report to the Centre about Thursday’s incident, as the BJP alleged that Nadda’s car was attacked by a mob backed by the Trinamool Congress. Sources said that the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has received the report and sought an assessment of the law and order situation in the state.
Slamming the Mamata Banerjee-led state administration, Dhankhar said: “The events that happened yesterday are most unfortunate. They are a slur on our democratic fabric.”
The TMC hit back at the Governor, saying that the report sent to the Centre was unconstitutional. “Why should they send such a letter? This is unconstitutional,” Kalyan Banerjee told reporters.
He said the Governor was nothing more than a conduit for the BJP and all the information he got was directly from the party. “JP Nadda was given a bullet proof car, he was given enough protection,” he said, adding that it was the BJP supporters who provoked the police.
Nadda’s convoy was attacked allegedly by Trinamool Congress supporters in West Bengal’s South 24-Parganas district when the BJP chief was heading out to attend a rally on Thursday.
The irate mob had also attacked other vehicles of senior BJP leaders like national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya, national vice-president Mukul Roy and Anupam Hazra in the convoy.
Later, chief minister Mamata Banerjee termed the whole incident as a ‘drama’ and claimed that it was staged by the saffron brigade to attract political attention before the state assembly elections.
“BJP has no other work. Sometimes the Home Minister is here. Other times its Chaddha-Nadda-Fadda-Bhaddha is here. When people don’t attend their rallies, they call their workers for doing such nautanki (drama),” Banerjee had said while addressing a public rally in Kolkata on Thursday evening.
Referring to the incident, Dhankhar said that on Thursday, the leader of a national political party was blatantly attacked and State actors, who were involved, had support from the ruling administration.
“This is like a death-knell to democracy. I have written so in my feedback. The Chief Minister has to follow the Constitution. She cannot depart from its paths. The law and order situation in the state has been continuously worsening for a long time. As a Governor, it is my duty to uphold the Indian Constitution,” he told media persons here.
The Governor also took a serious note of the CM’s statement where she had said the attack on BJP’s convoy was nothing but a ‘staged drama’.
“I take a very serious note of the statement made by the chief minister. How can a responsible chief minister, believing in rule of law, believing in Constitution, and believing in rich Bengali culture, talk the way she did. I appeal to her – madam, please reflect, please maintain some dignity and grace, and take back those words,” he said.
Talking about Banerjee’s stand on “outsiders making trouble” in Bengal, Dhankhar said that India is one country and any citizen can go anywhere here.
“Madam Chief Minister, India is one, Indians are one, please do not play with or fan this kind of fire. You are under oath of the constitution, please respect it. Who is an outsider, who is an insider, please do not indulge in these kinds of statements,” he added.
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