West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on Monday accused Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of "running a police state" and said her "misplaced" stance about constitutional norms reflects "authoritarianism".
"West Bengal is, unfortunately, emerging as a 'police state' with anyone posting on social media, to the distaste of the ruling dispensation, gets a police knock at his door," the governor said in a letter to the chief minister.
"The bitter truth is - People in the state only know only too well 'Who in the State is a usurper and extra-Constitutional fountain of power'! Who runs government and syndicates! Who is this ABCD! An open secret! Surely I am not the one, I can assure you that I am reasonably updated about affairs of state," Dhankhar wrote in the letter to Banerjee.
My response @MamataOfficial “Let us, in deference to popular sentiment, give quietus to this and together subscribe to time tested pearls of wisdom and plunge in service of the people, discarding the baggage of past and just look ahead to beat Covid-19 (1/3) pic.twitter.com/rjOxhdu1GE
— Governor West Bengal Jagdeep Dhankhar (@jdhankhar1) May 4, 2020
West Bengal Governor accuses Mamata Banerjee of hiding actual Covid-19 figures
West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankar on Friday accused Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of hiding details regarding Covid-19 cases in the state and asked her to come out with actual figures.
"West Bengal is the only state where the Inter-Ministerial Central Team (IMCT) faced problems in carrying out their work. When the entire country is fighting against Covid-19 and the IMCT came to assess the situation, we should have received it with red carpet instead of opposing it," Dhankhar told ANI.
He said that on April 10, the Ministry of Home Affairs had informed the state government that the "lockdown norms were getting diluted, social distancing was not being maintained and religious congregations are happening right under the nose of state police".
After this, an IMCT team was sent to the state to look at the real situation with regard to coronavirus, he said.
"With IMCT coming to the state, the number of testing has increased. After their visit, there have been positive changes in the state," the Governor said.
He said that after the investigation by IMCT "the death toll in the state suddenly jumped from 22 to 105."
"According to the World Health Organisation and the Indian Council of Medical Research, there (have) been more deaths. Why is Mamata Banerjee trying to hide the actual figure? This is the time to bring out actual details," he added.