TMC hits out at Dhankhar for "public relations exercise"

The ruling Trinamool Congress sharpened its attack against West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on Wednesday questioning whether he has come to the state for "public relation exercise". Senior minister Partha Chatterjee said that Dhankhar, unlike his predecessors is often accompanied by his wife in official functions which he attends as the governor.

"Is it not unconstitutional (on the part of governor) to bring a third person to official functions ? ... Did you ever ask the Hon'ble Governor whether Mr Dhankhar thinks he is on a PR exercise with his wife?" Chatterjee told newsmen. The minister, who is also secretary general of Trinamool Congress, said "We have not seen any other governor in the past - Gopal Krishna Gandhi, M K Narayanan, Kesharinath Tripathi indulge in activities like those by the Hon'ble Mr Dhankhar".

He said, "There had been differences in the past too between governors and the state but the way Mr Dhankhar is trangressing constitutional norms is unprecedented". Chatterjee, who had frequent run-ins with Dhankhar since the governor's visit to Jadavpur University campus with the police on September 19 to 'rescue' Union Minister Babul Supriyo, said that he has "great respect" for Dhankhar at his personal level. "But I appeal to you journalists to speak to him ... What is he doing?"

Asked about the Dhankhar calling a meeting of vice-chancellors of the state-run universities on January 13, he wondered if the governor was trying to bypass the state higher education department and trying to have direct communications with the VCs.

"This is unconstitutional," he said. The state government had recently passed the West Bengal Universities and College (Administration and Regulation) Ac 2017 in which the VCs are required totalk to the higher education department for any important academic issue and not the chancellor. The governor is the chancellor of the state universities.

"I wonder why the Governor is not trying to learn Bengali if he loves the state so much as he so often claims?" wondered Chatterjee, who had on Sunday said he was not in favour of inviting Dhankhar to the convocation of state-run Calcutta University as Chancellor,

"We have seen him (Dhankhar) mostly speaking in English and also in Hindi sometimes. Why can't he speak in Bengali if he is serious about being one of us in this state," he added.