TMC leaders attack Dhankhar over IPS debacle
Kolkata: Senior Trinamool Congress leaders were critical of Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar's act of openly reprimanding senior IPS officer Manoj Verma, the Commissioner of Barrackpore Police Commissionerate, after he claimed to have seen him reading a newspaper at Gandhi Ghat in Barrackpore.
"The Raj Bhavan is acting in a manner similar to a person who is suffering from some degree of depression. It was not a place to exercise his powers or do something for publicity. We are amazed at the way he is behaving on certain occasions. We doubt whether he has lost his sense of judgment about whether it is constitutionally correct on his part to snub a senior IPS officer in such a way," said TMC secretary general Partha Chatterjee.
Dhankhar on Thursday alleged that the law and order situation in the state has completely collapsed, after he allegedly witnessed Barackpore Police Commissioner Manoj Verma reading a newspaper at the Martyrs' day event at Gandhi Ghat in Barrackpore, where Dhankhar, state Power minister Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay, Home Secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay and other senior bureaucrats took part in a government programme to pay homage to Mahatma Gandhi on his death anniversary.
"I am sorry to say that the way he behaved makes it seem like he is looking for publicity. He is acting below the dignity of his position. I have been in politics for so many years but I have never come across a Governor who behaves in this manner," Chattopadhyay said.
He maintained that when the Governor reached the venue and got down from his car, both he and the Home Secretary welcomed him with folded hands. But he did not make any courtesy call and went past them. Later, while leaving the venue, he scolded the senior IPS officer.
Meanwhile, senior TMC minister of Panchayat and Rural Development Subrata Mukherjee termed the Governor's outburst as 'childish'.
"We on the part of the government showed respect and courtesy in the best possible way. If he had shown any sort of disrespect towards me, I would have shown four times more disrespect towards him," Mukherjee added.
Dhankhar, in the presence of guests and media, had told Verma: "How can it happen on a day like this? Shame on us. Senior police officers behaving like this in presence of the constitutional head. He was casually reading a newspaper. Can a police officer behave like this? This is a total breakdown of law and order. Send me a list of all people. I do not open a file to close it."
The Govennor alleged that Verma was reading a newspaper sitting in the front row when the programme was going on.
Retired IPS officers also condemned the act of the Governor. "If the Governor feels that any senior IPS officer has not given him the due respect, he may bring it before the notice of the Home department. But he cannot reprimand a senior officer in the open in such a manner," said a retired IPS officer who refused to be named.
"A senior officer cannot be treated like that. This can affect the morale of the police force," said Pankaj Dutta, another retired IPS officer.
"If an IPS officer was reading newspaper at a programme where the Governor was attending, he has not acted rightly. But I could not understand why the Governor was so agitated," said Tushar Talukdar, another retired IPS officer.
