Lagatar24 Desk
Kolkata, Jan 31: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee blocked Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on Twitter on Monday, a day after he stated the state had become “a gas chamber for democracy,” indicating that the two leaders’ ties had reached a breaking point after years of enmity.
“I apologise for it in advance. He (Jagdeep Dhankhar) tweets something every day abusing me or my officers. Says unconstitutional, unethical things. He instructs not advises. Treats an elected government like bonded labour. That’s why I have blocked him from my Twitter account. I was getting irritated,” Mamata Banerjee said at a press conference.
Banerjee further said that the governor has often intimidated the Chief Secretary and the police chief.
She claimed she had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi multiple times requesting Mr Dhankhar’s ouster, but that no action had been taken.
Dhankhar’s latest attack on her administration at an event to mark Mahatma Gandhi’s death anniversary appears to have inspired Mamata Banerjee’s move, which means the governor’s remarks would no longer appear on her Twitter feed.
“I cannot see the hallowed land of Bengal getting blood drenched (in violence) and becoming a laboratory for trampling of human rights. People are saying that the state is turning into a gas chamber of democracy,” he had said.
“There is no rule of law in Bengal. Only the ruler rules here. It is my responsibility to protect the Constitution,” he said, adding that no amount of “insults” will deter him from performing his “duties”.
The governor, a former BJP politician who has been at conflict with Banerjee since his appointment in 2019, recently accused the Chief Minister and Speaker of the Assembly of violating constitutional rules by failing to provide him with information he had requested on a number of issues.
He has had run-ins with the government over university vice chancellor nominations during his term, summoning bureaucrats to his office for explanations.
Last week, after paying floral tributes to BR Ambedkar’s statue on the assembly grounds, the governor called Bengal’s political situation as “terrible and frightening.”
