Raj Bhavan on Sunday issued a stern statement on Saturday’s alleged attack on junior Union home minister Nisith Pramanik’s convoy in Cooch Behar.
The communique, a source in the administration said, could be deemed as a hint of governor C.V. Ananda Bose’s change of stance towards the Mamata Banerjee government that the BJP state unit had desperately been seeking.
Raj Bhavan issued a statement saying the governor conducted a “confidential enquiry” into the “dastardly attack” on the convoy of Pramanik, asserting that the governor would not be “a mute witness to any deterioration of law and order anywhere, anytime in the state”.
“The Constitution should be upheld by all those who are committed to do so. Bengal expects every officer to do his duty, without fear or favour, be he in the police or magistracy or any wing of governance. Any laxity in the maintenance of law and order will lead to chaos and anarchy, which will never be tolerated,” it read.
“An action-taken report is called for immediately from the responsible law-enforcement authorities,” it added. The subject of the release cited“demand from many quarters for the imposition of Article 355 of the Constitution” in Bengal.
The governor, the statement said, personally discussed with Pramanik and expressed “shock” at the “deplorable” attack. “As a governor, it is my duty to ensure that West Bengal does not slip into a “soft state”. Rule of law will be established with an iron fist in a velvet glove. Democracy will not be allowed to degenerate into a mobocracy,” it added, reminiscent of statements that were regular during India’s current Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar’s stint as Bengal governor.
Till Bose’s recent trip to Delhi and Raj Bhavan’s removal of Nandini Chakraborty as his principal secretary, there was little indication that he would tread the saffron path of rubbing the Trinamul-led government the wrong way.
Multiple sources in the BJP camp said Bose’s decision to release Chakraborty was the fallout of the state BJP unit’s complaints to central leaders about the governor’s “bonhomie” with Mamata, which was apparently going against the BJP’s interest in Bengal.
Trinamul state general secretary Kunal Ghosh said the governor was “misinformed” and accused him of trying to protect his job. Sources in the BJP state unit trod cautiously on the subject but admitted to “jubilation”.
Nisith Rajbanshi card
Pramanik played the Rajbanshicard on Sunday, a day after his convoy was allegedly stoned by Trinamul supporters in Cooch Behar.
“It seems I was attacked because a person from the Rajbanshi community has become a Union minister. Trinamul is irked by it,” the junior Union minister said.
