Line crossed

n Sir — There is little doubt that the visit of the West Bengal governor, Jagdeep Dhankhar, to areas hit by post-poll violence in Cooch Behar constitutes a grave transgression of the bounds of constitutional propriety (“Governor jibe on protocol”, May 15). A habitual critic of the Mamata Banerjee government, he has been given to ignoring the principle that constitutional heads should not air their differences with the elected regimes in public. As recently as December 2020, Banerjee had appealed to the president to recall the governor for political statements that she believed were being made by him at the behest of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Union government. One would have thought that a fresh election, in which Banerjee’s Trinamul Congress has won a resounding victory, would be a reminder, if one was needed at all, that the norms of representative government ought to be a natural restraint on Dhankhar’s gubernatorial propensity to speak out of turn and step out of line.

There was a time when another West Bengal governor, Gopalkrishna Gandhi, came in for some criticism for setting aside the constraints of his constitutional office by expressing “cold horror” at the police firing that left 14 protesters dead in Nandigram in 2007. Some may believe that the gubernatorial office ought not to be an impediment to the incumbent yielding to the moral urge to condemn incidents of grave transgression. Yet, the larger principle that the governor should not offer public comment on situations best handled by the representative regime ought to hold good in all circumstances. In the case of Dhankhar, what worsens his persistent criticism of the TMC regime is the unfortunate congruency between his words and the interests of the BJP. His visit to Cooch Behar can be seen as an action louder even than his words in criticism of the elected regime. A visit by a governor to a scene of violence cannot be justified as a gesture of solidarity with victims. M. Channa Reddy, as the Tamil Nadu governor, had shocked the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam regime in 1993 by visiting the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh headquarters in Chennai after a bomb exploded there.

It may be argued that the present situation in West Bengal is different from those in which other governors had shed the constraints of their position. Post-election violence is something that should not be witnessed at all in an electoral democracy. West Bengal is certainly out of step with the rest of the country in allowing post-poll celebrations to degenerate into triumphalism and attacks on the losing side. Yet, the onus is on Banerjee to restore law and order and end the violence, even if she believed that the extent of the violence was being exaggerated by the Opposition. Regardless of one’s view of a regime’s inaction, there should be no departure from the principle that any advice or warning the governor wants to give to the elected government ought to be conveyed in private.

Khokan Das,
Calcutta

n Sir — It is unfortunate that in West Bengal the governor and the chief minister have been at loggerheads for a long time, even in the middle of a raging pandemic. Jagdeep Dhankhar’s visit to Assam in the aftermath of post-poll violence was avoidable. The Raj Bhavan needs to show restraint and not resort to actions which may give rise to the perception that Dhankhar is acting at the behest of the BJP high command. A cordial relationship between the governor and the elected regime is crucial for a peaceful political atmosphere.

S.S. Paul,
Nadia

Bad timing

Sir — The head of Japan’s e-commerce giant, Rakuten, is correct to say that holding the Tokyo Olympics this summer while the coronavirus pandemic continues to rage across the world would be a “suicide mission”. While India is witnessing a deadly second wave of Covid-19, Japan, too, has been besieged by a rise in cases. The latter should learn from the mistake India made by allowing the Indian Premier League to be conducted for a while as the nation gasped for breath. A sporting tournament on the scale of the Olympics would be ill-advised when all resources should be directed towards containing the deadly disease. The Olympics should be postponed indefinitely.

Rachit Arora,
Delhi