‘Bengal loves those who love Bengal’: Mamata Banerjee’s message to new Governor
Kolkata: With the former Intelligence Bureau (IB) top officer and the former Governor of Tamil Nadu, R.N. Ravi, taking oath as the 22nd Governor of West Bengal on Thursday, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s first message to him during the interaction after the oath ceremony was that ‘Bengal loves those who love Bengal’.
After the oath ceremony was over, the Chief Minister welcomed the new Governor by wrapping a piece of the cloak around his neck. During that interaction, the Chief Minister gave that subtle message to Ravi.
“Bengal and Bengalis respect people from all linguistic backgrounds. Everyone lives together peacefully in Bengal. But the main thing is that Bengal loves those who love Bengal. This is a characteristic of the Bengali people,” the Chief Minister told the Governor.
“It is true that West Bengal is the intellectual and cultural capital of India,” the Governor was heard replying to the Chief Minister.
Political observers feel that through this statement, “Bengal loves those who love Bengal”, the Chief Minister has given a subtle message to the new Governor.
“That message is that a cordial relationship between the State Secretariat and the Governor’s House will only be possible if there is no action on the part of the latter that might be against the interest of the state, or rather the state government. The message is significant considering the long history of tussle between the Governor’s House and the State Secretariat during the current Trinamool Congress regime that started during the tenure of Jagdeep Dhankhar, who later became the Vice President of India and continued during the tenure of Ravi’s predecessor, C.V. Ananda Bose,” said a city-based political observer.
Ravi succeeds C.V. Ananda Bose, who suddenly resigned from the chair on the evening of March 5, and on the same evening, Ravi’s name was announced as his successor. Ravi arrived in Kolkata on Wednesday, and Bose left the city for his hometown in Kerala.
Ravi is the second IB super-cop to be sworn in as a West Bengal Governor in the last one and a half decades. Before the crucial Assembly elections in West Bengal in 2011, which marked the end of the 34-year-long Left Front regime and the beginning of the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress command, the former IB chief and also the former National Security Adviser (NSA), M.K. Narayanan, was sworn in as the then Governor.