Kolkata: In the midst of the ongoing tussle between West Bengal governor, Jagdeep Dhankar and the state government on various issues, the governor and chief minister, Mamata Banerjee were seen together at the Republic Day Parade program in Kolkata on Wednesday evening. But the impact of the ongoing tussle could be clearly felt at that program where both the chief minister and the governor maintained a reasonable safe distance between each other.
Like in Delhi, a tableau on Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose was displayed at the Republic Day program in Kolkata also, which the governor and the chief minister watched together. The chief minister watched the program with the state assembly speaker Biman Bandoapdhyay seated beside her. While the governor was sitting at a distance.
On Wednesday the chief minister reached Red Road at around 10.30 am before the governor arrived as required under the protocol. When the governor arrived she even greeted him. This year the parade in Kolkata was concluded within just 30 minutes keeping in mind the COVID-19 pandemic, with the contingents of the Indian Army and Indian Navy taking part in the parade.
However, barring some customary moments of courtesy interactions both the governor and the chief minister maintained a measured distance between each other throughout the program. Though, cameras present there could hardly capture any moment where the chief minister and the governor could be seen interacting with each other, the body language of both leaders reflected a cold distance.
Political observers feel that this distance was inevitable in the wake of the continuing tussle between the state government and the governor. The last such incident was at the premises of the West Bengal Assembly, wherein the governor and the assembly speaker got engaged in a war of words.
Prior to that, there were rumblings when the leader of the opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari was denied an invitation to the Republic Day parade program in Kolkata. Adhikari has ridiculed the development and described it as a reflection of the chief minister’s anguish at being defeated to him in Nandigram in the 2021 West Bengal assembly elections.
