Kolkata: The Trinamool Congress (TMC) said Wednesday it has moved President Ramnath Kovind to remove Jagdeep Dhankhar from the post of the West Bengal governor. The Trinamool Congress has accused Jagdeep Dhankar of ‘transgressing constitutional limits’ by regularly commenting against the West Bengal administration and government in public. The BJP, however, said the governor is acting within his constitutional parameters while the ‘TMC is scared’.
A team of TMC MPs has sent a letter to the president Tuesday. In it they have listed ‘all such transgressions’ by Dhankhar in recent times. They have urged Kovind him to take action as per Article 156, Clause 1 of the Constitution. This information was shared by the party’s Rajya Sabha MP Sukhendu Sekhar Roy here Wednesday.
“The governor holds office during the pleasure of the President as per Article 156, Clause 1. We have urged the President to withdraw the pleasure, which translates into removing this governor,” Roy said.
“We have noticed that since he arrived in the state in July last year, he has been regularly tweeting, holding press meets and participating in TV discussions. He is regularly passing comments on the functioning of the state government, our officers, ministers, the chief minister, even once on the conduct of the speaker of the Assembly. Every such action is violative of his constitutional rights,” Roy added.
Alleging that Dhankhar has been making such statements in the public at the behest of the BJP-led government at the Centre to embarrass the TMC government in the state, Roy said, “This had never happened earlier in the 75-year-long history of West Bengal. If he has to say anything, he can communicate that in the way as provided to him by the Constitution, not by tweeting or holding press meets.”
Roy cited Dhankhar’s statement seeking expense details of the ‘Bengal Business Summit’, his demand for an apology from the chief minister over some of her recent comments and his ‘threat to 25 IPS officers’ as instances of the governor ‘violating his rights and limitations’.
“He has also said it is his duty to ensure free and fair polls. Who is he? It is the domain of the Election Commission. Similarly, only the CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General of India) has the authority to seek details of the expenses of state-organised events like the Bengal Business Summit,” Roy said. He said such actions by the governor go against the orders given by the Supreme Court in the past.
The letter to the president was signed by five senior party MPs in both the Houses, including Sudip Bandyopadhyay, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Derek O’Brien and Roy himself.
Reacting to the development, BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya said the governor is performing his constitutional duty as he finds that the state government is not performing its duty properly on certain parameters.
“I don’t think the TMC’s action of moving the President for the removal of the governor will have any impact. The President will go by his own understanding of the governor’s role,” Vijayvargiya told reporters.
