WB Governor compares Bengal government with burning Rome

PTI, October 16, 2024, Kolkata : Alleging that the West Bengal government headed by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has failed to carry out its basic duties to protect the lives and properties of citizens, Governor C V Ananda Bose on Wednesday said that his office is already intervening in the RG Kar impasse under provisions in the Constitution. 

Expressing disgust over the ongoing impasse following the rape-murder incident, Bose said that the arrest of a police officer and a senior doctor in the case again pointed to "institutional criminality", rampant in various sectors. 

"It is the duty of the state government, particularly of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, to protect the lives and properties of the citizens. 

"Here (in West Bengal), the government has failed to carry out its basic duties. Who should own up? If the chief minister is the chief (head of the administration), the answer lies in itself," Bose told PTI in an exclusive interview on the ongoing stalemate in the state. 

 On whether his office would intervene in the matter, Bose said, "Raj Bhavan is intervening and cannot be stopped from doing it because the Raj Bhavan intervenes under the provisions mandated in the Constitution of India." 

 Incidentally, a group of agitating doctors had met Bose at Raj Bhavan earlier this week and submitted a deputation highlighting their demands for quick investigation into the rape and murder of an on-duty woman doctor at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital besides overhaul of the security infrastructure at the hospitals and removal of Health Secretary N S Nigam. Bose, in an apparent reference to the chief minister's 'Dandiya dance' at Tuesday's Durga Puja Carnival on Red Road, drew parallels to Roman emperor Nero, who "played the fiddle while Rome burned". 

 "Festivities of Durga Puja should not be embellished with the dance of death. Nero, they say, played the fiddle while Rome was burning. Is history repeating itself in West Bengal? Who is trying to imitate? It is said, 'I am the Roman Emperor, therefore above grammar'. Is there anyone who says, 'I am the ruler, therefore above the law'?" Bose questioned. 

 On whether the state government was trying to hide something by not addressing the impasse and the demands of the doctors, Bose declined to comment anything citing the ongoing CBI probe into the rape-murder incident. 

 He, however, criticised the role of the state government, stating it could have been more transparent in its approach while dealing with the situation. "I cannot pass judgments on the state government at this stage of investigation," he said. 

 On the arrest of a Kolkata Police civic volunteer as the prime suspect in the RG Kar rape-murder, the officer-in-charge of Tala police station and ex-principal of the medical establishment, the governor said, "It reflects the institutional criminality, which seems to be rampant in various sectors, including police and healthcare."