Governor versus govt in army row - Keshari calls for caution, Mamata accuses him of speaking in Centre's voice

Keshari Nath Tripathi

TT, Calcutta, Dec. 3: Bengal governor Keshari Nath Tripathi today said everybody should exercise caution while making allegations against the army, prompting chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who has been protesting the deployment of the army at toll plazas, to accuse him of "speaking in the voice" of the Centre.

While coming out of a programme in Calcutta, Tripathi added: "Don't let the army down."

The governor did not take any names. However, Mamata has launched a campaign against the army deployment at toll plazas as part of a "data-collection exercise". She has alleged that the government had been kept in the dark about the move and that the army went ahead with the exercise at the Vidyasagar Setu toll plaza despite being denied permission.

The chief minister, who spent 30 hours at a stretch at state secretariat Nabanna to protest the move and alleged that the army was being used for "political vendetta", took to Twitter after the governor's comments.

Mamata said Tripathi was speaking "in the voice of the central government".

"He was not in the city for about eight days," the chief minister said. "Before making statements, all details should have been checked. It is very unfortunate."

Within hours of Mamata's tweets, a Trinamul delegation of eight MLAs led by minister Partha Chatterjee met the governor at Raj Bhavan.

The meeting, however, was pre-scheduled as another delegation had failed to secure an audience with Tripathi yesterday because he was out of town.

"Whatever he has said today, it is unbecoming of a governor. It appears that the governor is representing a particular party," Chatterjee said after today's meeting. "Never had I spoken against a governor. But today, we are extremely hurt. I asked him how could he say such things when he was not in Calcutta."

Yesterday, the army had released documents to bolster its assertion that the police and the government had been informed in advance about the "routine date-collection exercise". The army had said the transport secretary, the district magistrate of Howrah and the police commissioners of Calcutta and Howrah had been informed.This is not the first time the Bengal government has locked horns with governor Tripathi. 

In October 2015, Mamata had criticised the governor after he wrote to the Centre seeking central forces for the civic elections. The chief minister had said Tripathi was running "a parallel government".

The objections raised by Mamata, however, has been supported by several Opposition parties that protested in Parliament yesterday against the deployment of the army.