Governor Vs Government Battle In Bengal Getting Ugly; New Delhi Must Intervene To Rein In Dhankar

Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankar has been hitting the headlines regularly over the past couple of years for his comments against the Mamata Banerjee government in the state. The verbal battle involving sharp exchange of words between Dhankar and Trinamool leaders, including Mamata Banerjee, has reached unprecedented proportions.

On Sunday (January 30), Dhankar told media persons at a ceremony to mark the death anniversary of Gandhi that Bengal had become a “gas chamber of democracy” and “a laboratory for violating human rights”.

As expected, the Governor’s words evoked an angry retort from the Trinamool: transport and housing minister Firhad Hakim said Dhankar is free to leave Bengal if he finds the state difficult to live in.

The running feud between the Governor and the state government is slated to take another ugly turn with the ruling party mulling a resolution in the state Assembly censuring the Governor for his ‘unbecoming conduct’.

Last week, Dhankar criticised the state Assembly Speaker Biman Banerjee in the Assembly premises with Banerjee standing beside him. Dhankar accused the Speaker of “transgressing Constitutional norms”. The Speaker responded by terming the remarks “discourteous” and declaring that the Governor would have to cite reasons in future for visiting the Assembly premises uninvited.

Dhankar’s criticism of the Speaker has angered the Trinamool a lot and that is why it is mulling a censure motion against the Governor.

A day after the Governor’s criticism of the Speaker, Mamata Banerjee displayed her displeasure by not receiving the Governor when he went to attend the official Republic Day celebrations in Kolkata’s Red Road.

Dhankar started crossing swords with the ruling party and the state government soon after moving into the regal Raj Bhavan in end-July 2019. His criticism of the state government, and the retorts from Mamata Banerjee and her senior cabinet and party colleagues, have also been ugly.

The Governor has also had unseemly faceoffs with the state bureaucracy with top civil servants, including the chief secretary and the director general of police (DGP) skipping his summons at times. Dhankar has often accused the bureaucracy of acting unconstitutionally and being a handmaiden of the party in power.

A lot of the criticism voiced by Dhankar is valid. That the ruling party has acted in contravention of the Constitution, trampled democracy by attacking Opposition workers, paid scant regard to human rights, and has been functioning in an autocratic manner with little tolerance for dissent is too well-known and the instances of such transgressions too numerous to bear repetition.

But Dhankar’s loud criticisms and daily verbal volleys have lost a lot of sting because they have become too frequent.

Also, the impression that Dhankar’s conduct is not exactly bringing honour to the chair he currently occupies is gaining ground. He is seen to be belittling the Constitutional post and his actions are unbecoming of a Governor, say many.

True, Mamata Banerjee and her ministers, MPs and senior party colleagues have also joined issue with Dhankar and criticised him, often in very harsh language. Their conduct has also been unbecoming and nasty. But Dhankar occupies a Constitutional position whose dignity must be maintained and it falls primarily on the occupant of the post to do so. The Trinamool leaders who take on him are politicians who are frequently excused for their unedifying words and actions.

Mamata Banerjee will not be criticised, at least not by the masses in Bengal, for criticising or abusing Dhankar. But Dhankar will, and does, attract a lot of flak for taking on Banerjee and her Ministers and government.

Mamata Banerjee is known to be acerbic and combative by the people of Bengal. She has never shied away from a fight and even when the odds against her seemed insurmountable (during the rule of the Left in Bengal), she almost single-handedly fought against the powerful communists.

But Dhankar is an altogether different proposition. He is, in popular public perception, an ‘outsider’ who has been installed in the Raj Bhavan by the BJP. What is more, Dhankar’s charges against the ruling party in Bengal and the state government have started affecting the BJP adversely.

Many now suspect and accuse the BJP (the Union Government actually) of installing Dhankar in the Raj Bhavan in Kolkata only to critique the state government and use the Governor as a proxy in its fight against the Trinamool. The Governor, in public perception that has become widespread in Bengal, is acting at the behest of the BJP and the Union Government and has become a political tool to take on Mamata Banerjee. Hence, he is being criticised for misusing his office.

The Trinamool’s charge that the Raj Bhavan has become the “headquarters of the BJP in Bengal” is gaining acceptance and is being echoed in many settings across the state.

If unchecked, things will only get worse and the Dhankar versus Trinamool battle will turn uglier. That will further lower the dignity of the Raj Bhawan, but won’t affect Mamata Banerjee and her party or government at all, at least in terms of public support.

The BJP has to fight Mamata Banerjee and the Trinamool on its own politically. It should not use Dhankar as a proxy to fight its battles. Doing so is unethical and belittles the post of the Governor and erodes its dignity and status.

That is why the Union Government has to rein in Dhankar. The Bengal Governor should be told to desist from his daily battles against the state government. It does not behove the Governor to cross swords with the government so frequently.

It is primarily up to the Governor to uphold the dignity of the post. Dhankar has to keep that in mind, and should be told so explicitly by New Delhi.

If Dhankar is not restrained now, the BJP in Bengal stands to lose more support. People of Bengal will harbour the impression that unable to take on Mamata Banerjee on its own, the BJP is now using an ‘outsider’ to fight its battles in Bengal.

The BJP in Bengal would do well to remember that the perception of it being controlled by outsiders--a perception that gained ground because of the large number of ‘minders’ deployed to oversee the party’s poll campaign in Bengal--had cost it dearly in the Assembly polls last year.

Dhankar, thus, needs to be instructed to drop his adversarial stance against the state government and uphold the dignity of his office.