The change in governors came even as uncertainty looms over the state’s upcoming Assembly polls due to the incomplete voter roll revison.
The Modi government’s decision last week to appoint Tamil Nadu Governor RN Ravi as the next governor of West Bengal has fanned speculation about the Centre’s plans for the state. The development comes at a time when uncertainty is looming over the upcoming Assembly elections, making some worry that President’s rule might be imposed in Bengal.
Ravi’s tenure in Tamil Nadu, which began in September 2021 and saw a series of controversies, has only added to these fears. His critics see him as a governor who has scant regard for federalism, frequently stepping on the toes of the state government. Last year, in a landmark ruling, the Supreme Court even reversed his decision to not sign bills approved by the state Assembly.
Politicians and civil society figures from Kolkata told Scroll that Ravi’s entry in Bengal will intensify clashes between the state and the Centre as polls draw closer.
What the concerns are
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was first to set the cat among the pigeons by speculating why CV Ananda Bose, her state’s governor since November 2022, had resigned all of a sudden. Her party leaders go one step further.
“They [the Bharatiya Janata Party] have always wanted to impose President’s rule in the state,” claimed Mohammad Tauseef Rahman, a national spokesperson of Trinamool Congress. “Now that Mamata Banerjee is protesting for those voters who have been put under adjudication, they want to delay the election. He is being brought in to harass us.”
Rahman was referring to the more than 60 lakh voters whose fate has yet to be decided despite the special intensive revision of the state’s voter lists dragging on for over four months.
The Election Commission has not announced the polling schedule for West Bengal so far. The term of the current Assembly ends on May 7. This has triggered speculation that the state may have to be placed under President’s rule for the first time in nearly half a century. If it comes to that, the office of the governor will assume immense political significance.
“If there is President’s rule, they [the Centre] will need a tougher person than CV Ananda Bose,” explained Maidul Islam, a Kolkata-based political scientist. “Ravi has been sent because he was in the Indian Police Service and he is a tough person. When the Election Commission will be deploying forces, maybe he will intervene.”
Ravi is seen to be close to Ajit Doval, India’s national security advisor since 2014. He served as Doval’s deputy for a little over nine months in 2018-’19 before he was made the governor of Nagaland, the first in a series of governorships that would come his way in subsequent years.
Jawhar Sircar, a retired bureaucrat and a former member of the Rajya Sabha from West Bengal, also brought up Ravi’s years as an intelligence official in the police. He argued that Ravi is the sort of person that the BJP looks to “plonk” in the governor’s chair, describing him as a “ruthless, no-holds-barred, surgical operator” of the saffron party.
“There are people who are genetically and intrinsically malafide – Ravi belongs to that tribe,” Sircar added. “He has a proven track record of disrupting a legitimately elected government. And since he has been in intelligence, he uses Machiavellian crafts. This guy is bad news.”
Frying pan to fire
It is not as if Ananda Bose’s tenure in West Bengal was free of discord. He, too, has been in the news because of his regular run-ins with Mamata Banerjee’s government, most famously in the aftermath of the RG Kar rape and murder case. But, in Sircar’s view, Bose lacked the “killer instinct” that Ravi apparently possesses.
Mohammed Salim, state secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), which ruled West Bengal for 34 years before Mamata Banerjee came to power in 2011, articulated a similar view. In fact, he alleged that Trinamool, in cahoots with the political consultancy firm I-PAC, had “trapped” Bose using sexual harassment allegations against him as leverage.
“Something is being cooked in Delhi,” Salim said. “It is not easy to impose President’s rule. Whatever they want to do, Ananda Bose will not be able to deliver. So, they want Ravi to deliver it.”
Analysts, too, agree that in Ravi, the Centre has found a “steadier hand” than Bose. Journalist Snigdhendu Bhattacharya, who wrote a book about the BJP’s politics in the state titled Mission Bengal: A Saffron Experiment, suggested that having Ravi as governor puts the party in a better position to navigate the “unpredictable” future.
“They wanted a steadier hand because the situation has become unpredictable,” he added. “The special intensive revision may not give BJP the result that they desired. Many Matuas [a Bangladesh-origin community seen as BJP supporters] have got stuck.”
Does that mean that the Centre might impose President’s rule in Bengal? Bhattacharya was not sure.
“Maybe they think they can win the election with the administration in their hands,” he said, referring to the fact that under President’s rule the administration is controlled by the governor. “It is a big risk, but you never know with these people. They can do what others can’t imagine. Nobody imagined the bifurcation of Kashmir or the revocation of Kashmir’s statehood. That is why you can’t rule that possibility out.”
How it could backfire
The choice of Ravi as governor could also be interpreted as the party’s message to supporters as well as its rank and file. Bengal BJP leaders have long complained that the Modi government shies away from taking stern action against Mamata Banerjee’s administration. But Debjit Sarkar, a state spokesperson for the BJP, did not sound enthused by the announcement.
“It is not for us to be happy or unhappy with who has been appointed,” he said. “He [Ravi] has just been assigned the responsibility. The question of our happiness will arise once we have seen his work. He has not even joined yet, how can we assess his performance?”
Sarkar dodged the question of whether his party was in favour of imposing President’s rule in West Bengal by saying it wanted “people’s rule” in the state. Pressed further on the issue, he simply stated: “Whatever the Constitution says should be followed.”
BJP may be stopping short of demanding President’s rule because it worries that the move could backfire and benefit Trinamool instead. Mita Chakraborty, media chairperson of the Congress party’s West Bengal committee, argued that such a move would be “silly” and play into the hands of Mamata Banerjee.
“They [BJP] need to get floating voters on their side,” she said. “The floaters who supported them before will also turn against them if this perception of BJP being anti-Bengali gets further validation from very silly decisions. Mamata would walk away with a lot of sympathy.”
@Scroll.in
