WB Guv felt "humiliated and pained" at Durga Puja carnival hosted by Mamata Banerjee
Kolkata: West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on Tuesday said he felt "humiliated, deeply pained and disturbed" at a Durga Puja carnival hosted by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, where he was not seated at the main dais and "was not shown on TV" for even a second.
The Governor was upset that he was not seated on the stage where Mamata Banerjee had been seated along with various dignitaries at the event held on Friday to showcase the top 70 community puja pandals.
He also complained that though he spent four hours watching the carnival from beginning to end, he was not shown even once on the multi-camera footage that was beamed out from the event by a government-appointed agency.
Dhankhar did not name anyone but left little doubt that the Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal government had shown him great discourtesy.
Sources said the Governor, given a seat at a corner dais, couldn't watch the programme properly.
"I felt insulted at the carnival. I am deeply hurt and disturbed. The insult was not
to me but to every people of West Bengal. They will never digest such as insult. I am a servant of the people of West Bengal. Nothing can deter me from performing my constitutional duties," Dhankhar said on Tuesday.
The Governor said he was "speaking out of my injured heart".
"For four hours or more I was there and your press coverage was totally blacked out...This is unheard of. You will never find it anywhere else. Someone told me it was reminiscent of the Emergency," Dhankhar said emotionally.
"Not for a second was the first servant shown on TV. What happened has put me to shame because no person in Bengal will approve of it."
He said it had taken him three days to recover from this "injury " to his heart.
The governor even called it a painful moment of his life. "I will be there despite the insult because I have to recognize the talent of the people of West Bengal. I have to suffer for them, I will suffer. If I have to suffer more insults, more affronts."
The Governor's ties with the Trinamool Congress have been far from friendly, especially after his open criticism of the state government as well as Mamata Banerjee.
Weeks ago, Dhankhar had rushed in his car to the Jadavpur University and plunged into a dramatic row over the visit of Union Minister Babul Supriyo, who was manhandled and pushed by students and not allowed to enter. The Governor drove in and brought Supriyo out of the chaos.
The state government had accused him of jumping in without informing anyone to escalate the political drama.
Last week, the Governor again stepped in and appeared to goad the Mamata Banerjee government to act after a triple murder in Murshidabad that the BJP alleged had political links.
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