NEW DELHI: West Bengal governor on Wednesday alleged the state government led by CM Mamata Banerjee of ‘failing’ to carry out its duties in the RG Kar incident and urged the state to own up for its fallout.
The governor, who has often been at loggerheads with Banerjee also took a veiled dig at the chief minister’s ‘Dandiya dance’ at Tuesday’s Durga Puja Carnival and 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’?” governor Bose asked.
On the RG Kar impasse, the governor said the Raj Bhavan had already sought intervention under provisions of the Constitution.
Further, Bose alleged that the arrest of a police officer and a senior doctor in the case again pointed to “institutional criminality“, rampant in various sectors of the West Bengal state government.
“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 news agency PTI in an interview in relation to the stalemate.
On the allegation that 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.
“I cannot pass judgments on the state government at this stage of investigation,” he said.
The response from the West Bengal governor follows a memorandum submitted by the protesting doctors on Monday, calling for a thorough investigation by the CBI into the rape-murder of their colleague at the state run hospital on August 9. The letter was submitted by the protesting doctors, who took out a march to Raj Bhavan on Monday seeking their demands to be met at the earliest.
“We cannot accept what the CBI has stated in its charge sheet — only one person was behind the crime. We demand a quick and transparent investigation of the rape and murder of our sister at RG Kar hospital,” one of the doctors who marched to the Raj Bhavan said on Monday.