West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee with outgoing governor KN Tripathi

KOLKATA: Outgoing governor Keshari Nath Tripathi had informed the Centre about the "rising violence" and "deterioration of communal harmony " in West Bengal. Tripathi, in his parting shot, blamed the state government’s " appeasement " policy for such a situation. "People are equal before law. The Bengal government should also treat all of them equally," he said.

“Violence has to be condemned, no matter who is responsible for it. I have said this several times. I find that the situation has got worse while I am leaving Raj Bhavan. Today, I find incidents of violence have grown manifold than when I joined office in 2014,” the outgoing governor said on Saturday.

"I am not accusing anyone. But efforts should be made to contain it and improve law and order situation. I have sent dispatches to the Centre from time to time because I am duty-bound to send reports on the ground situation," he added.

Tripathi urged people, more than political parties, to come forward and restore peace in trouble-torn areas of the state such as the Bhatpara-Kankinara belt in Barrackpore.

The governor’s remarks drew criticism from Trinamool ministers, who had locked horns with Tripathi during the Basirhat riots and later, when he called a meeting of four major parties at Raj Bhavan soon after meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah in Delhi on June 10. "We had said earlier that the governor is using Raj Bhavan as the BJP party office. We stand vindicated by what Keshari Nath Tripathi said today," Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee said.

But Tripathi had good words for ministers Chatterjee, Amit Mitra and Firhad Hakim with whom he has had a good rapport. "They would often come for my suggestions on various government matters. They discussed with me and followed my suggestions," the governor said.

Tripathi also had no complaints against chief minister Mamata Banerjee . "We were not hostile to each other. We had been exchanging our thoughts. Political differences are natural while functioning, but it does not affect the working of a governor.

"A governor is supposed to be non-political, which is why the governor may not always agree with the CM and vice versa. Difference of opinion is a democratic phenomenon," the governor said.

For instance, Tripathi doesn’t agree with Banerjee’s "call for return of cut money". "I don’t think it is logical," he said.

However, working with the Trinamool government in Bengal and the BJP-led Centre has been a challenging task for Tripathi. "It was not an easy thing and I had to go through difficult times. Ideally, the state government and the Centre should act in coordination with each other. Rights and obligations are well-defined in the Constitution. If they are followed in letter and spirit, there would be no conflict. Unfortunately, sometimes both the governments do not see eye to eye for political reasons," Tripathi said.

The governor recalled the efforts he took to inform the state government about important decisions of the Centre and about the central schemes. "Sometimes the state government adopted the schemes but projected them in a different manner," he said.

Tripathi may get back to the legal world, from where he came. "I may join the Bar in Allahabad. Many lawyers have already approached me for legal advice. There are a lot of things to be done. I have started writing my biography. Again, I had written a book in 1974 — ‘The Commentary on the Representation of the People Act, 1951’ — which I want to revise, as the book has huge demand," the outgoing governor said.



In Video: WB: Mamata Banerjee’s appeasement policy killed peace says Governor Tripathi