In Battleground Bengal, TMC Pulls Out Corruption Gun In Mamata Vs Dhankhar Face-Off

Ever since his appointment as governor of West Bengal in 2019, Jagdeep Dhankhar’s comments on politics and administration of the state have repeatedly raised the hackles of the Trinamool Congress government. The verbal joustings of the belligerents have been marked by spirited displays of cut and thrust, of parry and riposte. Now, the battle between Dhankhar and the TMC has taken a rather intense turn over the past few weeks, with the party targeting the governor over the alleged lack of personal integrity.

Though the Dhankhar-TMC relationship has been sour from the beginning, Dhankhar has been predominantly targeted by the TMC for allegedly working at the behest of the BJP, trying to disrupt the state government’s functioning and thus crossing his constitutional limits. The biggest salvo came from chief minister Mamata Banerjee herself, when on June 28 she said that Dhankhar was a “corrupt” person who had his name on the charge-sheet of the Jain Hawala scam, but who later got it removed by app­roaching the judiciary.

Dhankhar was quick to respond, den­ying his name was on the charge-sheet and called the allegation “baseless, false and diversionary cover-up tactics”. Soon after, TMC Rajya Sabha MP Sukhendu Sekhar Roy asked if the governor would clarify if his name was found in the Jain hawala diary—basis of one of the most high-profile cases of corruption against politicians that had started in 1993.

Dhankhar was a Janata Party MP from Jhunjhunu in Rajasthan during 1989-91 and served as the minister of state, parliamentary affairs, at the Janata Party government at the Centre between April and November 5, 1990. He later joined the Congress, which he quit in 2003 to join the BJP.

The TMC got more firepower at its disposal when a day after Mamata’s opening shots, journalist and anti-­corruption activist Vineet Narain, who had ‘broken’ the scam in 1993, thanked the Bengal chief minister for reviving the issue. In a Facebook post, he wrote, “Yesterday, West Bengal Governor, Jagdeep Dhankar while add­ressing the press first said that he was not chargesheeted in this case and later said that all the accused have been acquitted. The fact is that under the category of political payees of Jain account books, a payment of Rs. 5.25 lakh has been paid to Jagdeep Dhankar and Rs 7.5 crores to Arif Mohd. Khan (then governor of Kerala). Being a senior advocate and Governor, Mr. Dhankar should not give such false statements. When there has been no trial in the trial court and the entire case was monitored by the Hon’ble Supreme Court, can he produce evidence of the acqu­ittal given by the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India?” The TMC shared this statement widely; Dhankhar was silent. Outlook had sought Dhankhar’s response to these charges in an email, but received no answer till the report went to the press.

The same day, on June 29, TMC MP Mahua Moitra shared a 1997 order of the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Twitter and wrote, “‘Man of integrity’ Governor WB was beneficiary of illegal residential land allotment which later came to be cancelled by a full bench of Punjab & Haryana HC. Was this also constitutional, Uncleji?” Moitra has taken to referring to Dhankhar as ‘Uncleji’. Again, Dhankhar did not respond, even though he had in the past denied a charge of Moitra’s, also made on Twitter, that he had appointed members of his “extended family” to various posts at Raj Bhavan.

Moitra’s post was quickly followed by the TMC making public a photo showing the purported security guard of fake vaccine racket-accused Debanjan Deb in the vicinity of the governor. The ‘security guard’ of the conman was arrested a day after.

Clearly, Dhankhar is facing a no-holds-barred attack from the TMC following the party’s return to power with a greater mandate. Apart from the CM writing to the Centre seeking his removal, even assembly Speaker Biman Banerjee complained against Dhankhar at a meeting of state assembly speakers with Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla, saying that Dhankhar was trying to interfere with the functioning of the assembly.  

Dhankhar has denied all charges and alleged that he was being targeted for raising valid questions about the ways of the state government. But he also seems to have critical voices from other parities to fend off. On June 16, CPI(M) politburo member Biman Bose alleged that Dhankhar was acting like a BJP leader.

“The governor does not belong to the BJP. But his activities are crossing constitutional boundaries. BJP leaders accompanied him during his trip to North Bengal. This is uncalled for from a governor,” Bose told journalists. He also criticised the way Dhankhar held a meeting with 51 BJP MLAs, part of a BJP delegation, at the Raj Bhavan. “The governor was to meet a delegation of six-seven BJP MLAs. But how many BJP men went? Everybody saw. This was unprecedented…. We do not support what the governor had been doing.”

The Left and the Congress hardly ever criticised the governor before the 2021 assembly elections—the tussle was between the TMC and Dhankhar. However, people outside the TMC did point out that Dhankhar indulged in activities that possibly were not ‘unc­onstitutional’ as the TMC termed them, but were definitely unprecedented.

Is the state government versus governor battle going to enter a more intense phase? Political observers consider it “highly likely”, as Dhankhar’s tenure would not end before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, ahead of which the TMC-BJP battle is expected to climb to newer heights of ferocity.

Dhankhar has shown no sign of rel­enting in criticising the government. The latest issue he has picked up concerns the audit of accounts at the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA), a semi-autonomous body administering Darjeeling hills and its neighbourhood. Once run by BJP’s ally Gorkha Janmukti Morcha’s (GJM) Bimal Gurung faction, it has since 2017 been run by state-nominated administrators from the Binay Tamang faction of the GJM. Dhankhar has been pressing for an audit of the GTA’s accounts, regarding which the BJP’s Darjeeling MP, MLA and Kurseong MLA had submitted a deputation before him last month.

On July 5, Dhankhar tweeted, “Governor WB Shri Jagdeep Dhankhar today got briefing from Principal Accountant General (Audit-II), WB as regards audit aspects #GTA @MamataOfficial. Governor expressed concern that GTA accounts are in arr­ears for last 7 years (2014-21) and even audit for 2013-14 is incomplete. Nothing can be more worrisome and disturbing aspect that crores have been spent with just no audit since GTA @MamataOfficial came into being. All reports that GTA is ‘den of corruption’ and all aspects call for exe­mplary probe investigation so as to promote accountability.”

It was in response to the governor’s allegations of corruption in the GTA and demand for an audit that had Mamata Banerjee up in arms, calling Dhankhar “corrupt” and mentioning the Jain Hawala case. Thus did the trade of barbs between the two adversaries get a new lease of life. 

(This appeared in the print edition as "The Past Is A Weapon")

By Snigdhendu Bhattacharya in Calcutta