A day after stormy protests rocked the West Bengal Assembly, Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on Tuesday requested Speaker Biman Banerjee to meet with him for a discussion on the “chaotic spectacle” that unfolded during the inaugural session in the House. High drama was witnessed on the first day of the West Bengal assembly’s budget session with Dhankhar being forced to cut short his inaugural speech and table the address as BJP MLAs staged a noisy protest over the alleged violence in the recently concluded civic elections.
Amid the ruckus, women MLAs of the ruling TMC were seen pleading with him to deliver his speech. Dhankhar, in his letter, however, said members of the treasury bench also added to the chaos.
He also stated that he was virtually subjected to a “gherao” by the ministers and ruling party MLAs. “How ironical that the treasury benches, principal stakeholder in the address of the governor, were also in overdrive to contribute to the disorder in the House that was already witnessing unruly Opposition protests,” Dhankhar wrote in his missive to the speaker. Maintaining that the “sanctity of the temple of democracy was outraged as never before” in the state, he contended that this called for exemplary action, apart from introspection.
The governor, taking to Twitter, said, “Urged Speaker WBLA for a meeting in next three days in view of unseemly ruckus and chaotic spectacle unfolded in the hallowed precincts of the august WB Assembly on March 7 during Governor Address under article 176 when decorum and propriety nosedived to lowest nadir (sic).”
In his message to Banerjee, Dhankhar also said, “It will be greatly appreciated that the meeting fructifies between us earliest, preferably in the next three days, subject to your comfort.”
TMC MP and party spokesperson Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, when approached, took exception to the language of the letter written by Dhankhar, stating that it amounted to the governor summoning the speaker. He also pointed out that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had appealed to Dhankhar with folded hands to deliver his address in the Assembly.
“It (letter) amounts to a command The governor is a constitutional authority, and so is the speaker. The speaker is head of the legislature,” the TMC MP noted. Roy also said that the word “preferably” in the letter meant Dhankhar’s preference, which tantamount to summoning the speaker, something beyond the governor’s jurisdiction.
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