Kolkata: Governor Jagdeep Dhankar and the West Bengal government are at loggerheads again. This happened after Jagdeep Dhankar’s letter to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee got leaked to the media Tuesday. In the letter Dhankar alleged that Banerjee has been silent over post-poll violence in West Bengal. She has also not taken steps to rehabilitate and compensate the suffering people.
The letter was written hours before Dhankar’s departure Tuesday for Delhi on a four-day visit. The governor wrote seeking interaction with the chief minister at the earliest on the issues flagged by him.
“I am constrained to observe your continued silence and inaction over post poll retributive bloodshed, violation of human rights, outrageous assault on dignity of women, wanton destruction of property, perpetuation of untold miseries on political opponents – worst since independence and it ill augurs for democracy,” Dhankhar wrote in the letter to Banerjee, a copy of which he shared on Twitter.
“Your studied silence, coupled with absence of any steps to engage in rehabilitation and compensation to alleviate the unimaginable suffering of people, force an inevitable conclusion that all this is state driven,” Dhankar alleged.
Dhankhar also accused the police and administration in the state of being partisan.
On its part, the West Bengal government launched a scathing attack on Dhankar for publicising his letter to Banerjee. In a series of tweets, the Bengal Home department said the abrupt, unilateral release of letter to the public is ‘shocking’ and called its contents ‘fabricated’.
“The communication format is violative of all established norms. The letter has been written to Hon’ble Chief Minister & released to public media through tweets simultaneously, which disrupts sanctity of such communications,” said a tweet.
“The unusual step of going public in this manner abruptly and unilaterally has shocked the Government of West Bengal all the more because the contents are fabricated,” said another tweet.