I Am A Tourist, Because I Go Without Invitation

Many an eyebrow was raised in July, when Jagdeep Dhankhar was appointed governor of West Bengal. The low-profile lawyer appeared to be the antithesis of what the ruling Trinamool Congress was anticipating. The party had expected the Union government to appoint a hardcore hindutva leader, since relations between Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi had hit a new low in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections in April and May.

- Rabi Banerjee

Dhankhar was a surprising choice. A senior Supreme Court lawyer and member of the International Court of Arbitration, he was known for fighting high-profile cases. He was actor Salman Khan’s counsel in the blackbuck poaching case in Rajasthan.

Dhankhar replaced K.N. Tripathi as governor. Tripathi, too, did not get along well with Mamata, and Dhankhar picked up from where his predecessor had left off. He wanted the chief minister to brief him on all important matters and senior officials to report to him directly. He visited nine districts in four months, interacting with the people and calling meetings with officials. Many officials kept away from the meetings, apparently at the instance of the chief minister.

Trinamool leaders soon came out against Dhankhar, saying he was unlawfully meddling in governance. “He is an agent of the Union government who wants to destroy the basic fabric of the Constitution,” said Health Minister Chandrima Bhattacharya.

Trinamool MPs raised the matter in the Lok Sabha, but no discussion on it was allowed. The Union government has also not intervened, even though the spat has taken an uglier turn. The governor recently alleged that he got only a last-minute invitation to the legislative assembly’s Constitution Day session on November 26. As per protocol, the session should have begun with the governor’s speech; but Dhankhar was relegated to being the fifth on the list of speakers.

On December 3, the assembly was adjourned for two days, with Speaker Biman Banerjee saying that the bills that were to be tabled were yet to get the governor’s nod. On December 10, Dhankhar exercised his powers under Article 175(2) of the Constitution and sought clarification on a bill that the state government wanted him to sign. His move prompted Trinamool legislators to protest outside the assembly and party MPs to raise the matter in the Rajya Sabha.