KOLKATA: West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on Monday said he saw a light of hope after the Prime Minister’s Bengal aerial survey of Amphan-ravaged areas with CM Mamata Banerjee joining him.
“Bengal is in the crossfire of COVID-19 and Amphan. On both counts, we are in great difficulty. The government of late is playing with a straight bat and that is after the central team came here. There is a light of hope at the end of a dark tunnel after the PM’s visit. The CM was also there for an aerial survey. Working together and cooperative federalism is being seen at the moment,’’ Dhankhar told TNIE on Monday.
Incidentally, the Governor on Sunday had criticized Mamata for the delay in seeking the Army’s support to deal with the cyclone aftermath.
"I was in touch with the chief of eastern command who informed me that 11 columns of Army personnel were ready with full preparedness. She (Mamata) should have sought Army’s help very next morning after Amphan made a landfall,’’ he reiterated.
The CM, a doughty street fighter, will realise someday that he was trying to protect and preserve the Constitution, the Governor asserted. Regarding his verbal spats with the CM, Dhankhar said he was a critic of none and believes in constitutionalism.
“I take counsel from everyone. I take command from only the Constitution. CM is a nice person. My only problem is that I want the CM not to constitutional distance me. I have tried to impress on her that your friend is in Raj Bhavan, that I will never ever violate the Lakshman Rekha of Constitution….The moment she feels I have overstepped my limits, she can remind me. … I would like to leave the baggage of past behind. (But) here is a big change I see in her. I am picking up the thread. I am trying to convince her. Things are brightening up. It will augur well for the state… I see the ice melting,’’ he explained.
“Most people do not appreciate the Governor’s role. If you look at the oath I have taken, I have pledged to protect and preserve the Constitution. The second part of the oath is I have to serve the people…The CM’s oath also says about following the Constitution. When an elected CM took to the streets on a law of the land that emanates from Parliament, I questioned her,” he said about the CM-Governor equation.
Referring to Mamata’s decision of hitting streets on the CAA, Dhankhar said she could have moved the SC.
“Right to protest is an expression of one’s view. But if one is holding a constitutional position…and if a state is aggrieved by a law, the CM has a remedy to challenge the law. An elected CM hitting streets against a law is not acceptable… Her party wrote a letter saying she hit the streets as a party president. But that role ends the moment someone takes oath (of office).’’