New Delhi: Amid incidences of political violence and killings in West Bengal, Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar met Union Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi on Thursday.
Addressing the media after on over hour-long meeting, Dhankhar slammed the Mamata Banerjee government yet again, and alleged that top bureaucrats and cops were working like political foot soldiers at the behest of the state government.
"There is a continual decline in democratic governance. The governance in West Bengal is getting distanced from rule of law and Constitutional prescriptions. Political violence is a daily affair and relentless political vendetta of unimaginable dimension with brutal targeted killings is being seen very frequently," Dhankhar said.
The Governor and the Chief Minister have been at loggerheads ever since Dhankhar joined office in 2019. The ruling TMC has repeatedly accused the Governor of working for the BJP.
"As Constitutional head, I have raised the issue to the government and to the bureaucracy many times. The greatest challenge to democracy in the state is that the police and administration with the involvement of top premier services are politicised. Some of them are working as frontline political workers totally abandoning their roles," Dhankhar alleged.
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"The state is sliding into lawlessness, virtual anarchy and political violence. Political vendetta is on an increase and power corridors are being infested by non-state actors and consultants. Bureaucracy is in spying mode, this is surely not democracy according to the Constitution. I have written on these issues to the Chief Minister, I have indicated to her in my last communication that we are at a penultimate stage of Constitutional collapse," he added.
The Governor also claimed that hundreds of bomb-making factories are actively functioning in the state, but no action is taken against those involved. He informed that he has also writhen to the Chief Justice of India seeking his intervention in the situation.
On the issue of political killings, Dhankhar said that he had written to the DGP giving specific threat perception to a Member of Parliament a day before his close aide Manish Shukla was killed, but rather than acting swiftly the DGP sent him a two-line reply that everything was in accordance with the law.
Later CM Mamta Banerjee also came forward and took a stand on behalf of the top cop and wrote to the Governor.
The TMC on its part, was quick to react to the Governor's allegations and released a statement counter alleging that Dhankhar was lying.
"Did he go to meet the Home Minister or to meet his BJP Leaders? All across Bengal the festive occasion was held peacefully. The joy of the festival was shared by crores of people in Bengal in harmony. He is a disgrace to the Raj Bhawan" said the statement released by the TMC after Dhankhar's presser.
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