West Bengal Governor MK Narayanan is again in the news. A distinguished former director of Intelligence Bureau (IB), his condemnation of the recent attack on Presidency University, Kolkata, by some goons is most unexceptionable. The state is in such a mess, and if things should not have to get worse, it requires the acumen and outspokenness of an administrator with nearly six decades of experience who will speak out fearlessly. It does not matter if, incidentally, he gives the impression of meddling in a matter outside his charter. His diatribe against the mob which caused huge damage to the university infrastructure, especially its hallowed science laboratories, came within days of his outburst against the violence outside the Yojana Bhavan in Delhi by some CPM cadres directed at chief minister Mamata Bannerjee and finance minister Amit Mitra. Here Narayanan went to the extent of saying that the attack against Mamata and her colleague outside the Planning Commission’s office seemed to be planned and premeditated. The Marxists are up in arms against the governor for this candid comment and have complained to the prime minister. In my view, the governor’s conduct has been exemplary. His objectivity cannot be questioned, because his criticism has lately been against both the CPM and the TMC, although against the former, he has been more explicit. Above all, his decision to visit the Presidency University and apologise to the faculty and students for a failure to protect them revealed that he was willing to stoop in order to conquer. Knowing the man as I do — I had worked for him for more than a decade — this was genuine contrition. There was nothing counterfeit about it. There is some evidence that there was a TMC hand in the happenings at the university. Worse is the report that the police posted on the campus looked the other way when the trespassers were on a rampage. Both these aspects deserve to be probed. Whether the governor will ensure this, is disputable. Not that he will not try. This is a real test for the governor. How far will he stretch his discretionary authority to ensure justice to the victims as well as free academic life from the current political acrimony in the state, especially at the Presidency University, is anybody’s guess. Fortunately for him, neither the CPM nor the TMC is a favourite of New Delhi. This gives him a nearly free hand to clean up the mess. Or else he would have had to seek instructions from the home ministry and 10 Janpath which, must be enjoying the bizarre spectacle in the state. The West Bengal events once more throw up serious questions about the role of the governor. I believe a strict interpretation of the constitution will not work here because of the magnitude of disorder and chaos now sweeping across the nation. The police machinery is subservient to the ruling parties all over the country. This explains why the men in uniform posted at the Presidency University did not lift a finger to contain the rioters, some of whom are said to be TMC cadres. Every party misuses the police unabashedly to promote its political interests, and this lack of ethics and respect for the rule of law grossly endangers the common man’s safety. This is why it is preposterous to demand that the governor should be a mute spectator even when there is grave disorder. He should intervene at the earliest opportunity when he senses that the state administration is neither effective nor neutral. The problem arises only when a governor acts at the behest of a party that is in power at the Centre. If the credentials of some governors in position now are examined, we may have to banish the idea that they will ever act without bias. This is the tragedy of the current scene.The writer is a former CBI Director. Views expressed are personal.

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