Bengal Governor wants to “spend time” in Singur; CM thinks those in constitutional posts should know their limits

West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankar on Thursday said that he wished to spend some time at Singur — the comment leading to yet another face-off between Raj Bhawan and Nabanna.

The name “Singur” has become synonymous with the Trinamool Congress’ agitation against the former Left Front government that eventually led to the formation of government by Trinamool in 2011 ousting the Left rule of 34 years. However, it has also come to mean the exit of Tata Motors from West Bengal that had shown promise of huge industrialisation boost in the state.

Interestingly however, the Hooghly Lok Sabha constituency – under which Singur falls – was won by the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Locket Chatterjee this year. The Assembly seat however, continues to be under Trinamool Congress.

The Governor on Monday, while returning from Shantiniketan, stopped at the office of Singur block development officer. As no officials were present there, Dhankhar said that it won’t be possible for him to remark on anything and he would visit Singur again in future.

On Thursday, the Governor — at a programme on Park Street — said that he might visit Singur again as well as Nandigram, and he felt that no one should stop him from doing so, as this was done only when people had “something to hide”.

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee reacted to the Governor’s Singur visit, though he did not refer to him. She said it was wrong for people in constitutional position to run a parallel government. She said that the state and Central government had both been elected by the people, and everyone should keep in mind that both the governments should be able to work. This is what has been mentioned in the constitution, and people should remember it, she said.

On Monday, during his visit to Singur, Dhankar had spoken with some local people who had apparently told him that Singur had neither gained in industry nor had its agriculture done well, and he must do something about it. To this, the Governor said reportedly said that he will have to learn more about Singur. There were some BJP supporters there as well, and on learning about this, the Trinamool Congress had staged a protest on that day.

After learning about the Governor’s Singur visit, some ruling party leaders had said that there was no information that the Governor was going to talk to the local people. It was also alleged that he was “overstepping”. However, Dhankar has been reiterating that he knows his role and the question of overstepping does not arise.