Irate Mamata lashes out at Guv in strong letter

Kolkata: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee slammed Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on Thursday in a strongly-worded letter, reminding him that he is a "nominated" functionary while she is an "elected Chief Minister".

The statement comes as a reply to "unparliamentary" and "unprecedented" attacks of the Governor against the state government, at a time when it is fighting relentlessly against COVID-19.

Strongly objecting to Dhankhar's "unprecedented step" of repeatedly speaking against the state government, Banerjee wrote to the Governor in an angry letter that "you appear to have forgotten that I am an elected Chief Minister of a proud Indian state. You also seem to have forgotten that you are a nominated Governor. You may continue to ignore all advice and inputs given by me and my council of ministers (as you appear to have taken upon yourself to do since the day of your appointment), but at least you should not ignore the wise words of Babasaheb Ambedkar in the Constituent Assembly on May 31 in 1949".

Quoting words of Babasaheb Ambedkar and observations of Sarkaria Commission, Banerjee urged the Governor in her letter to judge for himself "who has flagrantly transgressed constitutional dharma and even basic norms of decency between constitutional functionaries".

She urged the Governor to look back on his "direct attacks" on her and her Cabinet ministers, for his "tone, tenor and language, which in the mildest words of extreme moderation, deserve to be characterised as unparliamentary" and for his repeated and consistent interference in the administration of the departments of the Bengal government.

Referring to an SMS that was sent by Dhankhar at 7 am on April 22 in response to a letter of her, Banerjee mentioned that if anyone reads the content of the SMS without knowing the correct facts, he/she may think that she wrote some "unspeakable (un)constitutional sin or used derogatory language".

The Chief Minister has termed Dhankhar's statement in media on April 21 as "an unprecedented event to be organised by a Governor" and stated in this connection "In that you, inter alia, purported, in your own words, to warn me and again, in your own words, warned me not to do Centre bashing every morning."

While concluding her letter, Banerjee clearly mentioned "your expostulation leaves me with no option but to release these letters in the public domain to leave it to the people of this state and nation to judge who is in breach of elementary norms of constitutional behaviour".

The Governor has sent a reply to the Chief Minister's letter late on Thursday evening.