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Bengal governor Dhankhar cuts short speech amid ruckus in House
Kolkata West Bengal governor Jagdeep Dhankhar cut short his speech inaugurating the state assembly’s budget session on Friday after raucous protests by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) members in the House, reading out only a few lines and finishing in around four minutes
Kolkata
West Bengal governor Jagdeep Dhankhar cut short his speech inaugurating the state assembly’s budget session on Friday after raucous protests by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) members in the House, reading out only a few lines and finishing in around four minutes.
Dhankhar, who repeatedly clashed with the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) and previously expressed reservations about reading out a speech prepared by the state government, started at 2 pm.
But he was interrupted after four minutes by BJP legislators who reached the well of the House and started shouting slogans against the government.
The BJP members held posters and banners showing images of BJP supporters allegedly killed by TMC workers. They objected to some lines in the speech that said some violence took place before the new government took charge and a “section of people” was carrying out a false campaign using fake photos and videos.
Amid the ruckus, Dhankhar ended his speech by reading out a few lines from the last paragraph and left the assembly around 2.15 pm.
Leader of Opposition and BJP legislator Suvendu Adhikari said Dhankhar did not read the whole speech to express sympathy for the victims of post-poll violence
“We staged the agitation because the speech prepared by the government did not mention post-poll violence although it is now a national issue. We were not protesting against the governor,” said Adhikari.
Parliamentary affairs minister Partha Chatterjee dismissed the suggestion.
“The governor was interrupted by the unruly BJP members but his speech was accepted and placed before the House. In the second half of the session, the speaker passed the motion of thanks as well. So, technically the governor delivered his speech. Those who are denying it do not know parliamentary rules,” said Chatterjee.
Dhankhar was not available for comment. This is the first assembly session after Mamata Banerjee-led TMC won the state elections on May 2.
The developments came a day after ties between Raj Bhavan and the TMC touched a new low with the ruling party linking the governor to a fake vaccine scam. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who attended the House proceedings on Friday despite not being an MLA, also alleged on June 28 that Dhankhar was an accused in the 1996 Jain hawala case.
The same day, the governor denied the charges and told reporters that he was not bound to read out the speech prepared by the state government – contradicting established House norms backed by the Constitution.
In February last year, Dhankhar wanted to edit the speech prepared by the state for the budget session. The government rejected his suggestion. Dhankhar finally followed convention and read out the speech critical of the Citizenship Amendment Act.
On Friday, however, the acrimony was not visible at the House. The chief minister and speaker Biman Banerjee greeted Dhankhar at the gates when he arrived at 1.48 pm. They walked up to the statue of B R Ambedkar and paid tribute together. Banerjee escorted Dhankhar to the House and also saw him off. The two were seen talking cordially.
