West Bengal Governor CV Ananda Bose made the comments on Thursday in response to local media reports that a lady had accused him of harassment. He stated that he would not be “cowed down by engineered narratives” and that no one could halt his “fight against violence and corruption” in the state.
The woman went to a police station with her complaint, identifying herself as a temporary worker at the Raj Bhavan, according to the Anandabazar Patrika, Bengal’s premier daily’s website. In the midst of the Lok Sabha elections, the ruling Trinamool Congress in the eastern state launched a diatribe against the governor in response to the news.
“Truth will prevail. Storylines that are contrived to intimidate me will not win. God bless anyone wants to defame me in order to gain an advantage in the election. However, they are powerless to stop me from fighting corruption and violence in Bengal,” a Thursday night post on Raj Bhavan Kolkata’s X account stated.
“Truth will prevail. Storylines that are contrived to intimidate me will not win. God bless everyone who wants to defame me in order to gain an advantage in the election. However, they are powerless to stop me from fighting Bengali brutality and corruption.— May 2, 2024, Raj Bhavan Kolkata (@BengalGovernor)
The TMC, which has previously had multiple confrontations with Bose, described the accusations made against the Governor as “appalling and unthinkable.” On X, it declared that “the sanctity of Raj Bhavan, a symbol of our constitutionality, has been tarnished,” and a number of its well-known figures attacked Bose on social media for what they claimed to be “molestation charges.”
Tathagata Roy, a former governor of Meghalaya, stated that Article 361 of the Constitution shields the President and Governors from prosecution while they are in office.
“I don’t remember ever hearing of such an accusation. He was cited as adding, “I can’t say what will happen if the matter reaches court,” by the Anandabazar Patrika. He left open the possibility that there was a plot to “divert attention” away from “several corruption cases and Sandeshkhali,” where women had accused local TMC officials of sexual harassment and land theft.