WB Governor sends report to Centre on law & order, asks Mamata not to play with fire
Kolkata, Dec 11: West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar Friday said he has sent a report to the Centre about "extremely disturbing developments" in the state, in the backdrop attack on the convoy of BJP president J P Nadda.
Castigating the Mamata Banerjee government over the attack, allegedly by TMC supporters, Dhankhar said a dangerous game of insider and outsider is going on in the state.
Several vehicles in Nadda's cavalcade were damaged and BJP leaders and workers injured by stone-throwing protesters carrying TMC flags at Sirakol when he was travelling to Diamond Harbour to address a public meeting.
"Finding the situation alarming, as my constitutional duty, I have sent a report to the central government about the extremely disturbing developments that do not augur well for democratic values, that are antithetical to rule of law, that sound death knell of constitutional parameters," he told a press conference at the Raj Bhawan.
He said that he does not wish to share the contents of the report as part of propriety.
The TMC reacted sharply to the governor's remarks, calling him a "conduit pipe" of the BJP.
"The governor has made a habit of speaking to the press daily. We do not want to react to his statements, we can only say he is a conduit pipe of Bharatiya Janata Party," TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee told reporters.
Addressing the press conference where he excoriated Mamata Banerjee, Dhankhar asserted, "The governor will vindicate his oath, come what may."
He said it is shameful that such an incident occurred on International Human Rights Day.
"Accountability will be enforced," he said, cautioning Banerjee not to "play with fire".
Noting that calling an Indian citizen an outsider is an attack on the Constitution, he said, "This is too dangerous to be acceptable by anyone who believes in Indian Constitution and rule of law."
The TMC supremo has on several occasions said that the BJP is bringing outsiders into the state for the upcoming assembly elections.
Claiming that the BJP is bringing musclemen from outside and sending them to the villages in West Bengal, she had told a farmers' protest rally here on Thursday to challenge them and file FIRs against such entrants.
"If you move away from the path of the Constitution, then my responsibility begins," the governor said.
"The law and order situation in the state has been worsening with each passing day. Despite cautioning the chief minister and the administration nothing has happened," he said.
Dhankhar said the non-responsive stance of the chief minister towards the Raj Bhawan is an indication that governance in the state is not in accordance with the Constitution.
Claiming that distancing of governance from the rule of law cannot be accepted in democracy, he said, "unconstitutional parameters are at an alarming level making it extremely difficult for me to conclude that governance in the state is in accordance with the Constitution."
Describing the attack on J P Nadda's convoy on Thursday as most "unfortunate and a slur on our democractic fabric," he said "The violators of law in Bengal have immunity and protection of political police and administration."
"Present political scenario in West Bengal is that any opposition is ruthlessly suppressed...human rights were in flames yesterday on World Human Rights Day," Dhankhar said.
Describing Banerjee's comments on the incident of attack on Nadda's convoy as "most unfortunate", he said "I take a very serious note of the statement that emanated from Hon'ble the Chief Minister, how can a responsible chief minister believing in rule of law, Constitution, subscribing to the rich Bengali culture talk the way she did."
Dhankhar said the chief minister should apologise for her statement on the attack and her observations on the president of the ruling party at the Centre.
Banerjee had on Thursday termed the incident of attack on the BJP president's convoy as a drama to divert attention from lack of attendance at his rally, while questioning whether it was "planned" for the purpose of propaganda.
She had mockingly uttered distorted versions of the BJP chief's surname.
Holding that a governor is not a post office, Dhankhar said he will not fiddle around in Raj Bhavan when human rights are being violated.
"Are we in a situation that bonhomie with the ruling dispensation alone guarantees your rights? You cannot have any democratic or human rights unless you are on the right side of the ruling party," he said, asking "does it not signal the death knell of democracy?"
Appealing to Diamond Harbour MP and Mamata's nephew Abhishek Banerjee not to "tarnish the fabric of democracy", Dhankhar said, "I wish he had not said what he said."
The TMC youth wing president had termed the attack on Nadda's convoy as an outburst of people's anger with the BJP.
Maintaining that the state is heading towards anarchy and lawlessness, Dhankhar said he has asked the state's chief secretary and the DGP to send the message to lower rungs in police and administration to be politically neutral.
Dhankhar said the attack happened despite his alerting the two top state officials about the possibility of "collapse" of law and order during Nadda's public meeting.
When asked about Dhankhar's claim that he had informed the state administration of possible law and order problem well in advance on Thursday morning, TMC lawmaker Kalyan Banerjee said the governor's source of information must have been the BJP "who were to create the situation".
Dhankhar said he wants to send a message across to some bureaucrats who "are integrated as stakeholders in the political field" that they are doing "everything under the sun to act not as public servants but as political workers".
Noting that he has information about these officials, Dhankhar said he will share the "sensitive details" with the chief minister as and when she spares time.
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Goldy Brar not the victim in Fresno shooting: Police in California
Washington, May 2: Police in the US state of California have dismissed reports that the victim of a shooting incident in Fresno city was Canada-based terrorist Satinderjit Singh alias Goldy Brar, who was the alleged mastermind in the murder of Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala, according to a media report.
Fresno Police on Wednesday identified the man killed in an alley at Fairmont and Holt avenues as 37-year-old Xavier Gladney in a gang-related interpersonal dispute.
Police on Wednesday also said the incident was not connected to a case involving a reputed gang killing in India, The Fresno Bee newspaper reported.
Speculative reports in Indian media on Wednesday claimed the victim was Brar, a suspect in the killing of Moosewala, it said.
Fresno Police said the department was receiving several calls from international media and that officers were working to debunk any connections between the slayings, the paper said.
Police officers at 5:30 pm on Tuesday at the alley at Fairmont and Holt after receiving information about a shooting incident.
Officers arrived and found Gladney with a gunshot wound. He was taken to Community Regional Medical Center where he was pronounced dead. A 13-year-old was also dropped off at the hospital with a non-life-threatening wound.
Fresno Police Lt. Paul Cervantes on Wednesday said the teen was at the location where shots were fired. Homicide detectives have identified the alleged shooter as 33-year-old Darren Williams.
Cervantes said a warrant has been issued for Williams’ arrest on suspicion of murder and assault with a deadly weapon The motive is a gang-related interpersonal dispute, Cervantes said.
An activist of the banned Babbar Khalsa International, Brar has been involved in the smuggling of high-grade arms, ammunition and explosive materials through drones from across the border and supplying them for carrying out killings and also providing sharpshooters.
He hails from Sri Muktsar Sahib in Punjab and is reportedly residing in Brampton, Canada.
He was designated a terrorist by the Indian government under the anti-terror law, Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, this year.
In a notification, the Union home ministry said Brar, backed by a Pakistan-based agency, has been involved in multiple killings and professes radical ideology.
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