Bengal Governor quotes Tagore to criticise panchayat poll violence

Kolkata: On the occasion of the death anniversary of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore as per the Bengali calendar on Tuesday, West Bengal Governor C.V. Ananda Bose chose to quote the great Indian poet, writer and educationist, in criticising the events of violence in the recently concluded panchayat polls in the state which took a toll of more than 50 lives.

"Gurudev spoke of a situation 'where the mind is without fear and the head is held high'. I sincerely feel this from inside. But here now the mind is with fear and the head is down. A time has come to build a "violence-free" and "corruption-free" Bengal," the Governor said at a function to observe the death anniversary of Gurudev in the Raj Bhavan premises on Tuesday.

He also added that the current state of affairs in West Bengal is totally opposite to what Gurudev dreamt about.

"In the name of Gurudev we have to get united achieving a "violence-free" and "corruption-free" Bengal," he said.

Reacting to the comments by the Governor, the State Assembly Speaker Biman Banerjee said that the Governor should first learn Bengali and then understand the context of Gurudev's quotes.

The State Education Minister Bratya Basu said that had the Governor realised the secular ideology of Gurudev, he would not have acted like a spokesperson of the BJP.

In the recent period, the tiff between the Governor's House and the State Secretariat reached its peak over the Governor's decision to open an anti-corruption cell with the Raj Bhavan premises to address the issues of corruption at the university-level education in West Bengal.

Earlier during the panchayat polls, a Peace Room was opened at the Governor's House premises to address the issues of violence over the polls.

The state government and the ruling Trinamool Congress have described such moves as an attempt on part of the Governor to run a parallel administration in the state from the Raj Bhavan.