As CM, I ask you to not act on a political mandate: Mamata tells Guv
Kolkata: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday wrote to Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar and said he should remain within the mandate of the Constitution, expressing anguish over his letter to the state's police chief over the law and order situation.
The Chief Minister strongly attacked Dhankhar for his "unlawful and unwarranted demands" along with "attempts to intimidate and arm-twist" the state's Director General of Police (DGP) for capitulating before his "unconstitutional requests".
This comes in connection with a confidential letter of the Governor on September 5 to DGP Virendra and in reply to which the latter stated that "West Bengal Police firmly adheres to the path laid down by law. There is no discrimination for or against anyone in extra legal sense". The Governor had termed the reply to be unsatisfactory and stated Bengal to be a safe haven of terror and crime.
In a nine-page letter to the Governor on Saturday, Banerjee stated: "You have passed judgments on the current state of affairs of our state in the following words "safe haven of terror, crime, flourishing illegal bomb-making, corruption", etc. Such unsubstantiated statements without evidence or mere imputations are absolutely false and baseless and may cause unnecessary panic among the common people and cause loss of life, for which law will hold you responsible." She further stated that instead of passing "sweeping statements" he should furnish evidence and information, if any, to help the police to prevent such crime.
Stating that she was "extremely upset, anguished and disillusioned" reading his letter to the DGP, the Chief Minister further stated that the Governor has no right to interfere with the "day to day" administration of the state government and he is only entitled to get information "regarding executive and legislative proposals of the ministry, from the Chief Minister".
In connection with the letter to the DGP, she further mentioned in her letter: "Sadly, your inquiry into criminal investigations in connection with a particular accused Mr A Singh, and seeking reports regarding the investigation processes from the DGP is not information regarding any executive or legislative proposal and such inquiry not only amounts to interference in the day to day administration of the state government but also gives rise to serious suspicions of interference in and influencing ongoing investigations."
She further added: "Your contemporaneous tweets and attempts to seek intervention of senior members of the bureaucracy by personal communications amounts to interference with law mandated actions by the police force. This is illegitimate and reeks of favouritism."
She further mentioned that it was beyond her imagination as to why the said accused did not follow the due process of law like other citizens of the country if he had any grievance and found it more convenient to approach the Governor. "I would say that the honourable Governor, himself being a lawyer, should not have entertained the accused... Further, the accused, by successfully obtaining the Governor's extra-legal intervention and interference, has actually put the honourable Governor in a dangerously precarious position which might have serious consequences under law."
Stating that the Governor sought information from the DGP solely based on his judgment made on the basis of the information provided by the accused, she stated in the letter: "It is disastrous that you defamed the DGP upon his non-compliance with your unlawful and unwarranted demands and are now attempting to intermediate and arm-twist him into capitulating to your un-constitutional requests. Browbeating and insulting state government officers in such manner will undoubtedly have an adverse effect on their morale."
Urging him once again to act within the mandates of the Constitution, she wrote: "Needless to say that since you are the constitutional head of our state you unfortunately cannot be a representative of any political party".
