Bengal governor C.V. Ananda Bose on Sunday opened the gates of Raj Bhavan to Trinamool Congress MP Kalyan Banerjee, members of civil society and journalists “not exceeding 100”, to visit the premises and verify whether any arms and ammunition were stocked inside.
The unprecedented decision was taken as a countermeasure to Trinamool Congress MP Kalyan Banerjee’s statement, in which he claimed that the governor had been sheltering BJP “goons” and supplying them with guns and bombs to kill his party workers.
“First, tell the governor not to shelter BJP-backed criminals inside Raj Bhavan. He is sheltering those criminals and providing them guns and bombs with instructions to go and kill those belonging to Trinamool,” MP Banerjee told reporters on Saturday.
Banerjee was responding to governor Bose’s recent statement regarding the special intensive revision of the electoral rolls in Bihar. The governor had said that the SIR had helped purify the electoral roll.
Although there have been several incidents where differences between Raj Bhavan and the ruling Trinamool Congress government under Mamata Banerjee have come out in public, accusing the governor of harbouring arms and bombs inside Raj Bhavan and sending goons to kill Trinamool workers was unprecedented.
Banerjee also accused the governor of being “incompetent” and a “servant” of the BJP — remarks many described as an unprecedented attack on the constitutional head of the state.
A long statement issued by Raj Bhavan announced that not only would the gates be opened for scrutiny from Sunday morning, but also that MP Banerjee should issue an unconditional apology if his claims were proven false.
“Since MP Kalyan Banerjee said, arms and ammunition are distributed in Raj Bhavan, Raj Bhavan said, Raj Bhavan is open for the MP and members of the civil society and the journalists, not exceeding 100 in numbers, to visit Raj Bhavan immediately and verify if any arms and ammunition are stocked as alleged by the MP,” the statement reads.
“If it is not correct, the MP has the decent option to apologise to the people of Bengal and face prosecution for hate speech,” it added.
The statement also highlighted that since the security of Raj Bhavan was handled by Kolkata Police, an inquiry must be conducted into how arms and ammunition were allegedly allowed to be brought inside the premises.
“Since the Kolkata Police is guarding Raj Bhavan immediate inquiry may be held into how they allegedly permitted arms and ammunition to be brought into Raj Bhavan, which is a threat to the Governor, who is under Z-plus category security...,” the statement continued.
According to the statement, the governor’s security officers advised him to leave Raj Bhavan for a safer location until the inquiry into the alleged illegal arms
is completed.
However, the governor reportedly said he would remain in Raj Bhavan at any situation.
As Banerjee is a member of Parliament from Serampore, Raj Bhavan will formally request Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to conduct an inquiry into the matter, as grave allegations have been made by a member of the House.
The governor expressed hope that his constitutional colleague and chief minister Mamata Banerjee would take action against such false statements made by the MP.
On Sunday evening, Raj Bhavan released a note explaining why MP Banerjee’s speeches violated law and were offensive under different sections of BNS, indicating that the Raj Bhavan is going to take legal actions against Banerjee.
The governor said that strongest possible actions will be taken against Banerjee’s statement.
“I have already given a decent option to the MP that if he finds that he was wrong, he has the option to apologise before the people of Bengal,” said Bose. “Otherwise I will take the strongest possible actions in this case because it is inciting people to mutiny and encouraging violence in the state.”
In retaliation, Banerjee once again mounted a sharp attack on Bose. He said that if the governor decides to go against him in the court, he would also move to the court of law.
He also challenged the governor to sit in a debate.
“If you (governor) utter any provocative statement, we will lodge an FIR against you in various police stations. You act as an agent of BJP while sitting on a constitutional chair,” said Banerjee on Sunday evening.
The BJP also said there should be an inquiry into such baseless allegations against a constitutional authority like the governor.
“We cannot accept such baseless allegations against the governor and Raj Bhavan without any valid proof. The chief minister should look into such false claims against the constitutional head of the state,” said Union minister of state Sukanta Majumdar.