West Bengal governor Jagdeep Dhankar on Sunday accused Mamata Banerjee of wasting public money on an anti-Citizenship Amendment Act campaign on television instead of ensuring police effectively curbed the state-wide arson. He demanded immediate withdrawal of the ‘advertisements’ calling them unconstitutional.
“The government must act very very fast on that (the advertisement). I am sure the chief minister will at least withdraw those ads. They are absolutely unconstitutional. Impermissible. It is an atrociously criminal use of public funds.” Dhankhar said, referring to the television campaign being aired since Saturday.
In the campaign, the chief minister asks people to refrain from violence while assuring that her government would not implement the CAA and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Bengal.
The governor said the amended act had been cleared by the Parliament and opposing it was unconstitutional and could lead to “anarchy”.
“It (CAA) is sanctified by the people. We have a law in Parliament only after the majority supports it. After deliberations this law has taken shape. We cannot allow a situation to get into anarchy mode,” he said.
Dhankar claimed there was “total absence of accountability” in certain quarters and the state government needed to be in “action mode” instead of paying “lip service”.
He also hit back at Mamata’s frequent allegations that he was running a parallel administration in the state and said the chief minister should act as per the Constitution to restore the confidence of the people.
“I appeal to all people to maintain peace. My appeal to the government is to get into the administrative mode,” said Dhankhar.
Dhankhar did not spare the state police either.
“Police authorities should have and could have anticipated the situation. They should have been more proactive and more involved. The appeal (the campaign) should have been for them (police) to be in action mode,” he said.
Bharatiya Janata Party’s Bengal unit president Dilip Ghosh also targeted Banerjee’s campaign accused her of violating the Constitution by publicly proclaiming she will not allow the implementation of CAA in Bengal.
“She is going against the Constitution. We will move court,” said Ghosh.
Trinamool Congress did not react to Dhankhar’s statement until late evening.
