West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said on June 17 that she had written thrice to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to withdraw Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar from the State.
She was responding to questions on Mr. Dhankhar’s visit to the Delhi. She described the Governor as “Centre’s own person” and denied allegations of post-poll violence.
“A child can be cajoled into silence… In this case, speech is silver and silence is golden,” the Chief Minister said responding to the Governor’s allegations of post-poll violence in the State.
On speculations that the Governor may be changed, Ms. Banerjee said she had not been informed about any such development. “How am I supposed to know? When a Governor is appointed, the State government is usually consulted. That was not done in this case,” she said.
When she was asked for her opinion, the Chief Minister snapped, “Why should I tell you? I have written to Prime Minister three times that the Governor should be withdrawn”.
This is the first time the Chief Minister has gone on record that she has written to the PM on withdrawing the Governor.
Earlier, the Trinamool Congress leadership, including several MPs, had written to President Ram Nath Kovind demanding the Governor’s recall.
Twitter row
Ms Banerjee described the Union government’s attempts to “control Twitter” as unfortunate”. “They cannot control Twitter, that is why they want to bulldoze Twitter. They cannot control me, that is why they want to bulldoze my government and my party,” she said.
Speaking on allegations of post poll violence, the Chief Minister said there were a few incidents, and she had asked the police to take strong action in such cases.
“There are no incidents now. At the time when the State was under the Election Commission, there were some sporadic incidents. But all incidents were not political. In some cases, personal enmity was there. As the matter is sub judice, I won’t speak. But I do not support any violence and whenever there is an incident, I have asked police to take strong action,” Ms Banerjee said.
The Chief Minister said the BJP was trying to create an atmosphere of violence. “There is no political violence, it is BJP gimmick violence,” she said.
During the day, the Chief Minister relaunched the State’s Krishak Bandhu scheme and doubled the annual financial support for all farmers and sharecroppers.
“Farmers will now receive an increase in financial support from ₹5,000 to ₹10,000 for one acre or more of cultivable land. Additionally, those having less than one acre will now receive a minimum of ₹4,000 per annum, on a pro-rata basis,” the Chief Minister said.
The Trinamool Congress had promised to relaunch the scheme and double the support if the party were to return to power in the State.
Ms. Banerjee said that about 60 lakh farmers will benefit from the scheme. Funds had been released to about 9.78 lakh farmers and about ₹290 crore had been released for the purpose.
Governor meets President
On Thursday, Mr Dhankhar called on the President. “Governor WB Shri Jagdeep Dhankhar along with Smt. Sudesh Dhankhar made a courtesy call on President of India Hon’ble Shri Ram Nath Kovind and First Lady Smt. Savita Kovind at Rashtrapati Bhawan @rashtrapatibhvn today at 11.30 am,” he had tweeted.
The Governor also called on Union Home Minister Amit Shah in the evening.