‘Mamata Hiding Actual Coronavirus Numbers’: WB Governor Dhankhar

West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar talks to The Quint’ about the tension between him and WB CM Mamata Banerjee.

WB Governor Jagdeep Dhankar talks to The Quint’s Sanjay Pugalia

(Photo: The Quint)

Video Editor: Mohd. Ibrahim

West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar talks to The Quint's editorial director Sanjay Pugalia about the mounting tension between him and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee. He accuses her of breaking constitutional provisions and of hiding the actual coronavirus numbers in the state.

Stating that a governor’s job is to protect the Constitution in his state while the chief minister’s job is to act under the constitutional provisions, Dhankar says it disturbs him that Mamata Banerjee took to the streets in “agitation mode against a bill that has already been passed in Parliament”.

He further adds that she used “public funds for her agitation mission”.

Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday, 2 May, shot back at Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar in an unusually strongly worded response to his letters attacking her administration on its handling of the COVID-19 crisis.

In a 13-page letter, Mamata not only ripped into the governor’s allegations made through letters and social media over the last week, but also said the words used by him against her ministers and officers, “even with maximum restraint” can only be described as “vituperative, intemperate, intimidating, insulting and abusive”.

Dhankar says that he tried to contact the CM to discuss the pandemic situation but alleges that she denied, saying she was “busy fighting” the situation and would only get back to him later.

He slammed the Mamata government, saying, “You can't imagine what I tolerated during nine months of my tenure.”