The ongoing hostility between Punjab Governor Banwarilal Purohit and Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann was yet again on display on Monday as both fired salvos at each other.
Taking a dig at the Chief Minister, Mr. Purohit alleged that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government was acting against the Constitution by not responding to several of his queries to which the Chief Minister is bound to reply. Mr. Mann reacted strongly, saying it was unfortunate that under the present Central regime, “selected ones are unnecessarily peeping into the affairs of the elected ones”.
“Undue hiccups are being created to derail the smooth functioning of the State government,” said Mr. Mann in a statement, adding that “as a matter to fact the gubernatorial Raj Bhavans are now acting as the State headquarters of the BJP which is a very dangerous trend for Indian democracy.”
Mr. Purohit, talking to journalists here, accused the AAP government for not replying to his letters even after the Supreme Court’s directions in this regard. The tiff between the Governor and the AAP government has been on public display for a while now. They were involved in a face-off over holding a session of the Assembly. The AAP government moved the Supreme Court after accusing the Governor of refusing to summon the Assembly.
Responding to a question that he had refused to refer to the State government as “my government” in his address in the Assembly, Mr. Purohit said he had no hesitation in doing so.
Reacting to this, Mr. Mann said the Governor had started his speech with “my government” but however when a hue and cry was raised by the Opposition without any logic he preferred to use the word “government” only. “However, when he reminded the Governor about the judgment given by Supreme Court, he changed his stance and used the words ‘my government’,” he said, adding that the video recording from the records of Punjab Vidhan Sabha was proof that Governor was adopting a hostile approach towards the elected State government.
