”Constrained to observe your continued silence”: Dhankhar to Mamata on post-poll violence

PTI, Jun 15, 2021, 8:05 PM IST

Kolkata: West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar wrote to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday, alleging that she has been silent over post-poll violence in the state and has not taken steps to rehabilitate and compensate the suffering people.

Hours before his departure to Delhi on a four-day visit, the governor wrote seeking interaction with the chief minister at the earliest on the issues flagged by him.

“I am constrained to observe your continued silence and inaction over post poll retributive bloodshed, violation of human rights, outrageous assault on dignity of women, wanton destruction of property, perpetuation of untold miseries on political opponents – worst since independence and it ill augurs for democracy,” Dhankhar wrote in the letter to Banerjee, a copy of which he shared on Twitter.

“Your studied silence, coupled with absence of any steps to engage in rehabilitation and compensation to alleviate the unimaginable suffering of people, force an inevitable conclusion that all this is state driven,” he alleged.

Dhankhar, who has been at loggerheads with the Trinamool Congress government on several issues since taking over in July 2019, also accused the police and administration in the state of being partisan.

The governor wrote that during his May 13-15 visit to Coochbehar, Nandigram and Ranpagli in Assam, he had listened to heartrending tales of sufferings of people for voting as per their choice in the West Bengal assembly elections.

The governor”s visit to these places had led to a war of words between him and the chief minister with Banerjee writing to him, claiming that his tour violates norms, while Dhankhar hit back saying he is discharging duties mandated by Constitution.

The governor wrote that the chief minister had, in an unprecedented manner, on May 17 “spent six hours at the CBI office at Nizam Palace seeking release of the arrested persons”.

Banerjee had gone to the CBI office soon after the arrest of two ministers in her cabinet — Subrata Mukherjee and Firhad Hakim, TMC MLA Madan Mitra and former Kolkata mayor Sovan Chatterjee in connection with the Narada sting tape case.

The governor urged the chief minister to deliberate the issue of post-poll violence in the cabinet, take all steps to restore law and order and provide succour to the suffering people.