“The Governors will not have powers to overrule the decisions of the council of ministers. “The first thing I would like the House to bear in mind is this. The Governor under the Constitution has no functions which he can discharge by himself: no functions at all…. Even under this article, the Governor is bound to accept the advice of the Ministry,” as per the rule book, laid down by the chairman of the Constitution Drafting Committee Dr BR Ambedkar, Dhankar’s 14-page letter to the West Bengal chief minister and All India Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee notwithstanding.

Dhankar in his attacking letter – an open document – stated: “I can figure out that your entire strategy is crafted to deliberately divert people’s attention from your abject failure in combating and containing coronavirus in West Bengal. Your appeasement of the minority community was so explicit and awkward that as regards a question about the Nizamuddin Markaz incident by a journalist, your reaction was ‘Do not ask communal questions’. ”Dhankar further asked the CM to “disable her political antenna, shun confrontationist approach and be in action mode”. He tweeted:“Focus on suffering not demagoguery. ICMT making studied headway catalyzing situation. No time to sharpen knives against Governor or Central Government. Real time look at the situation not bravado must for way forward.”

The opposition parties in West Bengal — BJP, CPI(M) and dominant section of WBPCC leadership —sing in unison with a view to needling the CM rather than the AITC. There is no denying that the state government is too at fault, particularly in being transparent about day-to-day data on Covid-19 deaths. But the impression that the opposition is trying to build, that Mamata Banerjee ought to be held responsible for the comparatively high percentage of mortality to coronavirus infection, seems tendentiousness.

The CPI(M) state secretary and polit bureau member Surjyakanta Mishra, a medical doctor, and state legislative party leader Sujan Chakraborty, a central committee member of the party, are inexplicably silent about why the IMCT is led by Apoorba Chanda, director of acquisitions, ministry of defence. The team leader The IMCT team leader, told the media, that it put forth 37 questions to the state government on containment measures but no response came from the state government. However, the CM shot back with a reply that her government officials (meaning doctors) had little time to spend time to prepare replies. Indeed, over two dozens of doctors and almost equal number of nurses and health staff were infected while working at hospitals to treat Covid-19 patients and two doctors died. Thus there is shortage of existing clinical staff as the infected ones are in quarantine.

The Governor endorsed the accusation that the state government did not arrange for accommodations and vehicles for them but skipped why the teams arrived at the Kolkata airport without prior information to the state government—an indulgence certainly not open to the IMCT going by the federal etiquette, unfortunately pooh-poohed by the bureaucrats who seem committed to the saffron tune. The Left opposition to the AITC government maintains silence as if to enjoy from the ringside how the state government is being put in trouble.

Ridiculing the IMCT, Trinamool Rajya Sabha leader tweeted: “IMCT #Bengal visit served no purpose. Visiting districts with no hotspots. Asking for committee already in place. Real aim is to spread the political virus. Doing it shamelessly. Blatantly. Take ur pick. IMCT= India's Most Callous Team. IMCT= I Must Cause Trouble (in Bengal)". The spat is undesirable at such an hour but perhaps expected as well.

Dhankar, who left the Congress in 2003 and joined the BJP , was a Congress MLA in Rajasthan (Janata Dal MP between 1989-91)acts more committed towards the Sangh Parivar when he tweets to Mamata Banerjee: “From looking for alibis, scapegoats, exit or shifting burden to serving the people. We are in deep crisis-only real time earnest action in concert with Centre way out. ‘State within State’ approach - unconstitutional and inopportune”.

His words in the aforementioned interview too look like echoes from the West Bengal state BJP headquarters.“From all over the state, I have got worrisome inputs about PDS being hijacked politically, ration dealers being subjected by ruling party workers to coercive mechanism, and distribution taking place in a politicised manner under token issued by the workers of the ruling party”. This is undeniably unbecoming of a governor, as expected by the framers of India’s Constitution and directly contradictory to the same state custodian of Constitution in another tweet to the CM: “GoWB will initiate every possible help to people of Bengal stuck in diff parts of the country due to lockdown, in returning home. I've instructed my officers to do the needful. Till the time I'm here, nobody from Bengal should feel helpless. I'm with you in these tough times.”

Tailpiece: Not a single coronavirus infection has been detected in Murshidabad district of West Bengal which has the highest percentage of Muslims in India and is extremely unlikely to be spotted, said a former BBC stringer. (IPA Service)