Many an eyebrow was raised in July, when Jagdeep Dhankhar was appointed governor of West Bengal. The low-profile lawyer appeared to be the antithesis of what the ruling Trinamool Congress was anticipating. The party had expected the Union government to appoint a hardcore hindutva leader, since relations between Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi had hit a new low in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections in April and May.
Dhankhar was a surprising choice. A senior Supreme Court lawyer and member of the International Court of Arbitration, he was known for fighting high-profile cases. He was actor Salman Khan’s counsel in the blackbuck poaching case in Rajasthan.
Dhankhar replaced K.N. Tripathi as governor. Tripathi, too, did not get along well with Mamata, and Dhankhar picked up from where his predecessor had left off. He wanted the chief minister to brief him on all important matters and senior officials to report to him directly. He visited nine districts in four months, interacting with the people and calling meetings with officials. Many officials kept away from the meetings, apparently at the instance of the chief minister.
Trinamool leaders soon came out against Dhankhar, saying he was unlawfully meddling in governance. “He is an agent of the Union government who wants to destroy the basic fabric of the Constitution,” said Health Minister Chandrima Bhattacharya.
Trinamool MPs raised the matter in the Lok Sabha, but no discussion on it was allowed. The Union government has also not intervened, even though the spat has taken an uglier turn. The governor recently alleged that he got only a last-minute invitation to the legislative assembly’s Constitution Day session on November 26. As per protocol, the session should have begun with the governor’s speech; but Dhankhar was relegated to being the fifth on the list of speakers.
On December 3, the assembly was adjourned for two days, with Speaker Biman Banerjee saying that the bills that were to be tabled were yet to get the governor’s nod. On December 10, Dhankhar exercised his powers under Article 175(2) of the Constitution and sought clarification on a bill that the state government wanted him to sign. His move prompted Trinamool legislators to protest outside the assembly and party MPs to raise the matter in the Rajya Sabha.
Constitutional experts say Dhankhar is becoming too assertive. “The governor’s act is against the spirit of the Constitution,” former Supreme Court judge A.K. Ganguly told THE WEEK. “He is the representative of the Central government. He should not publicly attack the chief minister or the state government. He may have grievances, but he should deal with them in different ways and on different platforms.”
Dhankhar, however, maintains that he has taken utmost care to act with decorum. During an exclusive and extensive interview with THE WEEK at Raj Bhavan—he gave two sessions in two consecutive days—he quoted a famous couplet by Akbar Allahabadi. “Hum aah bhi kartein hain toh ho jate hain badnam; Wo qatl bhi karte hain to charcha nahin hota (If I say a word, I become infamous; even if she kills, there is no discussion).”
Excerpts from the interview:
It has been more than four months since you assumed office. You have visited North Bengal twice and nine other southern districts. None of your 27 predecessors did that.
I am the first governor of Bengal born in independent India, and the 21st in the line (the other seven were interim governors). It will not be fair for me to reflect on the tenure of my distinguished predecessors. All were known for excellence in their own fields of work, and were gifted with immaculate credentials.
So, shall I assume that they were wrong by not being so proactive?
I have already answered that. I don’t want to say anything further.
Did you ever visit Bengal as an ordinary citizen? If yes, what are the differences you see now as governor?
I used to come to Kolkata for the past two decades as senior advocate of the Supreme Court. But my four months so far as governor is more memorable from the perspective of the response of the people. I have visited nine districts. I truly received an emotive and rousing reception from the people. I could see their love for me in their body language. However, the responsibility of the state government calls for a re-look.
Why does it need a re-look?
So that it can fall in line with propriety and protocol requirements.
Why do you say this?
Senior officials like district magistrates and superintendents of police were not present in the districts I visited. Representation was virtually at the junior level. Surely, the constitutional head of a state qualifies for a more dignified reception. I am considerably worried that the chief secretary of the state, who took charge on September 1, is yet to call on me. And, can you imagine—it is nearly two months!
Are these the only issues you are concerned about?
There is a constitutional provision that obligates the honourable chief minister to brief the governor on issues that matter to the state, and this has to be performed both ways. The chief minister is yet to spare time for this constitutional obligation.
Did you ask her about it?
On October 19, the state was hit by severe cyclone Bulbul. I, after a few days, wrote to her seeking details. My communication to the chief minister was responded to by the home secretary! I was surprised at the lack of propriety.
I have undertaken long tours of the state by road, to attend functions at faraway places in Malda and Murshidabad districts. I travelled more than 700km per day both ways. My request for a helicopter was repeatedly denied. But there was generous use of helicopters by the chief minister and other ministers.
A month ago, I invited the chief minister and others to the Constitution Day function at Raj Bhavan. She did not attend. I got a last-minute invitation for a similar function at the assembly. Keeping in mind the importance of the occasion, I chose to suffer the indignity and attended the function. I was speaker number five—after a former Lok Sabha speaker, a former chief election commissioner, two former governors and a former chief justice of the Calcutta High Court. Can you imagine that?
What do you make out of it?
I understood that a designed strategic narrative was scripted on the point of courtesy. I assert that the lack of courtesy done by the other side was to the governor's office. I have more to add. At 3 pm on the same Constitution Day, as it has been evidenced by video and photographs, the CM was at the statue of B.R. Ambedkar with a former speaker, former chief election commissioner and former chief justice of Calcutta High Court. While talking to the media, she mentioned my name at the end of the list. This was disrespectful. When I went to garland the Ambedkar statue at 5.30 pm, the CM was nowhere to be seen.
But the chief minister said you did not show courtesy to her.
What a paradox that she says I lacked courtesy. She initiated it. Boot is on the other leg, not on mine. That narrative she floated has to be nipped in the bud through evidences like photographs and videos. I leave it to the judgment of the people about her reaction that she enjoyed good relations with all previous governors. Contemporaneous records would not support her. The whole world knows the language she employed for the former governors and people of high positions.
I remember Gopalkrishna Gandhi, as governor, visiting violence-torn Nandigram to comfort the people. You recently visited the block development office at Singur, but the officer in charge left before you reached. What was the purpose of your visit?
I will visit any part of the state and need no sanction from anybody. If someone is perturbed because of my visit to Singur and Nandigram, I have nothing to say.
Your visits have earned more wrath than praises from the state's ruling dispensation. Were the visits necessary?
I will visit every nook and corner of the state. I have already received huge response from the people. The warmth is unprecedented. Yes, state administration remains absent, which is of no consequence to me.
But can you call on senior officials without intimating it to the chief minister, who is the executive head of the state?
All my visits are monitored by the administration. The moment I move out of Raj Bhavan, the government knows it. I think there is no harm in planning a sudden visit. Governors all over the country have done that. In fact, my predecessor did it.
The Constitution clearly says that the governor can act only as advised by the council of ministers headed by the chief minister.
My problem is seeing people like you in the media, who, according to me, is suffering from the fear psychosis created by the present dispensation in the state. You mean that I need to be addressed by the ministers or the CM? Several ministers called me a tourist. I am a tourist because I go without invitation.
But the government says you unnecessarily create confusion by casting aspersions on your own government.
I believe in persuasion, not aggression. I would continue to strive for that, so that a path of reason dictates [how the government] deals with the governor.
Cold vibes: Dhankhar and Mamata Banerjee at a Constitution Day event in Kolkata.
Even then you went to her house during Kalipuja.
Yes. Once she said I went to her place for publicity. This touched my heart on the wrong side. It was a good gesture on my part. I had to react so that people know who goes where for publicity. Yes, I made an objection because I went and came back from her house with a pure heart.
What is your agenda as governor?
I took oath to protect the Constitution and serve the people of West Bengal. So I have two obligations.
No one in the government has told me that my actions are beyond legitimate.
If so, how did the matter turn worse?
Through these statements, their aim is to convert a governor into a politician. But you can have it from me that they would be met with total failure. I would never go beyond my jurisdiction and never hesitate to be functional under the Constitution as well.
If you are being ill-treated by the council of ministers, including the chief minister, you can go to the president of India and register your protest. Have you done it?
I have never ever discussed with the media about my official communications with the president, the prime minister, the chief minister or other ministers. Official matters that are confidential are not for discussion in the public domain. I only reacted when someone crossed the limit—that, too, after a gap, so that the highly cultured people of West Bengal may not take my silence as my admission of the reckless allegations by ministers and the chief minister.
The current situation in the state is not at all healthy.
Of course, it is (not healthy). Newspaper report says the CM sang a song in order to degrade me in the assembly. I refrained from commenting on that, but could not anymore. I am optimist that as dusk settles in, there will be remorse and they will be into correction mode.
You are also the chancellor of state universities…
I am, indeed, a worried man as education is suffering a lot. The government seemed to have not recorded the communication to the governor or the chancellor. Our education system needs a massive uplift. I have limited authority as indigestible developments are taking place. I am the chancellor. Though it is my prerogative, I learned about some vice-chancellor appointments through newspapers. I am not even informed, much less consulted. I know why there is no commitment to education, which is so vital for us.
But what is happening is unseemly. Can’t you and the chief minister sit down and sort it out?
Again, for heaven’s sake, shed your fear and become professional. Please ask those questions that pertain to me. You are suffering from a fear psychosis because of the government of the day. Did you ask these questions to the government?
I did. I put the same questions to the government as well.
Did you ask the chief minister?
The chief minister evades the questions.
You send an email to her. Ask her what the government has done. Let me tell you, fear in the media is the last thing one could have in a democracy.
Many feel you may seek transfer from Delhi due to the criticisms.
Look, the Constitution comes from elsewhere and criticism comes from a section of people, a small segment. People at large are enthused with me. I am not at all worried and will fulfil my commitments for the people of the state. I want to know the logic and rationale behind the atrocious campaign against the constitutional head of this state. A false narrative, with no constitutional basis, has been let loose.
Why did you take the central forces? Do you feel threatened?
I am worried that you feel I am threatened. Hundred per cent people greeted me wherever I went.
In Murshidabad, people who were described as goons showed you black flags and told you to go back.
Only a handful people—around 13 to 15—waived black flags. And I waved back to them. They were supported by the local police.
So you do not call them goons?
Not at all. Demonstration is the right of the people.
But after that, your security was completely revamped by the Central government. Sources said you were at risk. Even one individual could be problematic.
I am not worried. No masterminded strategic move will have any impact on me. About security, I would not make any comment, but I will proceed in the direction given by the Constitution and would deter all situations.
University campuses are breeding grounds for politicians everywhere. But Bengal campuses are violence-prone. What do you have to say?
Both as the governor and the chancellor, I will work in the right direction to ensure that there will be no violence in the campus. Violence in the state is the worst thing that can happen to a democracy and the rule of law.
West Bengal is suffering from political violence. Elections have become so bloody that even ruling party workers are killed. The situation is such that people, especially in rural areas, have come to fear the polls.
Political violence is a threat to democracy. I appeal to everyone to shun violence. It is giving a bad name to the state.
Elections to more than a dozen civic bodies are due. But the polls have not been announced and administrators are running these bodies. What will you do?
Did you ask the CM about it? No journalist has done it. This is my problem. I am called upon to do something that should have been done by the government.
There is a view that if elections are not held, there would be no bloodshed. But is that healthy for a democracy?
You ask the government.
If the government fails, you have to act.
I don’t need that sermon. I can assure you that I will do my duty, within the parameter of the law. The government has not flagged any such issue so far for my attention. The moment it does, it will be responded to.
TMC raised your role as a governor in both houses of Parliament.
I am not answerable. Anybody can raise anything about me anywhere. It does not concern me.
You said you were ill-treated in the assembly. It is a serious complaint, as the house usually begins a session with the governor’s message. As per the Constitution, you can send the state’s advocate general to the assembly to see whether all is well in the house, and then report to the president. Will you do that?
Never in the history of India’s parliamentary democracy has such insult been meted out to any governor. I must, however, say that the power I have, has to be used as the last measure. I don’t believe in an aggressive mode of working. I take the recourse of persuasion and further persuasion. I am an optimist. Given the CM’s huge experience, this persuasion will work. Sometimes, things take time to fall in place.
Some ministers say you are an agent of Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
Ask them what is the basis [of that claim]. Is it because I am proactive? Was Mr Gandhi [Gopalkrishna Gandhi], who went to Nandigram, not proactive? Mr [Saiyid] Nurul Hasan used to travel to villages. I can tell you that this governor is yet to be proactive.
You were an eminent jurist. Do you feel the days in court were much better than the life at Raj Bhavan?
Neither do I live in the past nor in the future. What I did earlier is not an issue now.
In 1968, Dharam Vira, the then governor of West Bengal refused to read out the government’s note in the assembly during the inaugural session. It is known as one of the biggest controversies in Indian parliamentary proceedings. Will there be a repeat of that next year?
What makes you feel that I will fail to persuade the chief minister?
Because the BJP said even the prime minister has failed (in persuading Banerjee).
He did not. The prime minister is a visionary and he genuinely believes in cooperative federalism. The whole world knows how the prime minister catapulted India to the position where India is today. I am bound to succeed with Mamata Banerjee. She is an eminent leader. Yes, I engaged in an outrage. I don’t blow it out of proportion. I had to react in a compulsive situation because the built-up narrative was difficult for me to accept. You are singing a song referring to me in the assembly! Media reported that. Can you ever sanctify it by any standard?
How do you see Mamata Banerjee, both as a chief minister and a human being?
I have not been here long enough to respond to this comprehensively. Our one-to-one interactions have been cordial, civil and warm. I consider her as a senior leader of India.