After an over-six-month long duel, the West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar has said that his issues with the State government have been addressed and their “rapport” has improved. Mr. Dhankhar spoke to journalists on the sidelines of a meeting in Jalpaiguri in north Bengal on Friday.
“My rapport with the State government has picked up. I had been saying so for a long time [that] we need dialogue, we need deliberation, we need to engage, we cannot be adversaries, we cannot be fighting with each other,” he said.
The Governor added that the Constitution “does not allow” the Governor and the State government to fight and “only allows [them] to work in tandem, in togetherness, for the betterment of the people” of the State.
War of words
Mr. Dhankhar and the State government were engaged in one of the most bitter war of words over the past months. It often was not limited just to acrimonious word-battles but more. The Governor argued that the State was restricting his movement by not providing helicopters, while the government pulled no punches in saying that the Governor was working on behalf of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the principal Opposition in Bengal. The relationship fuelled social media, and social media groups with names like “Governor felt insulted” were getting traction.
‘Never as bitter’
In the past, there were quite a few occasions over which the West Bengal government and the State’s Governor had a major face-off, starting in the late 1960s, during the time of the Left-leaning United Front Government’s rule. But observers said that the relationship between the Centre’s envoy and the State was never “as bitter as it was during the past six months”.
This came to an apparent end on Friday evening, as the Governor said he was happy with his successive meetings with the State government’s representatives, starting with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
“The Honourable Chief Minister has met before [earlier] for an hour. The Chief Secretary has met before for more than two hours, and several times. Finance Minister had met me. Partha Chatterjee [the Education Minister and Trinamool Congress’ secretary general] had met me; we had a good, productive discussion,” Mr. Dhankhar said.
It now remains to be seen how long the truce will continue in the run up to the Assembly poll of 2021.
