Bengal Guv seeks legal opinion against Kalyan Banerjee for 'invective' remarks

Kolkata: West Bengal Governor C V Ananda Bose on Sunday said he sought legal opinion over Trinamool Congress MP Kalyan Banerjee's allegation of Raj Bhavan allowing the stacking of arms and ammunition, while taking recourse to a Shakespearean verse to describe the politician's demeanour.

Bose uttered a part of one of William Shakespeare's most famous verses from his tragedy, 'Macbeth', to express what he felt about the MP's comments -- "It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing", an official said.

"The governor is seeking legal opinion against Banerjee for his comments on Saturday. The Raj Bhavan's doors have been kept open from 5 am and he is waiting for Banerjee to visit and inspect to gather evidence for the points he made," the official told PTI.

"Should he fail to prove what he said, then why shouldn't a legal proceeding be initiated against him? The governor is also writing to the Lok Sabha Speaker to conduct an inquiry into the matter, since the TMC MP has made grave allegations," he added.

On Bose's use of Shakespearean verse that contains the term "idiot" in it, the Raj Bhavan official said that the governor used it to describe someone who is "incriminatingly derogatory and invective".

He said that the Raj Bhavan's doors are kept open for Banerjee, civil society members and journalists to carry out inspections in the wake of the TMC MP's allegations.

On Saturday, barely hours after Bose said that the SIR of electoral rolls was essential to "clean up the election process", he drew a counterattack from Banerjee, who accused him of "sheltering BJP criminals" inside Raj Bhavan and "arming them with bombs and guns".

Bose had defended Special Intensive Revision (SIR) as a process that was designed to remove discrepancies and restore public confidence in the electoral system, while maintaining that the Bihar elections demonstrated broad public acceptance of the mechanism.

"If people are confused, we should convince them that SIR is a new process which is required to clean up the election process and to ensure that free and fair elections take place," Bose had said.

"Bihar has proved it. I am sure the people of Bengal will also accept it," he added.

Reacting to the governor's views, the TMC MP launched a sharp attack on Bose, alleging that the Raj Bhavan was being used to shelter "BJP offenders".

"First, tell the governor not to shelter BJP's criminals in Raj Bhavan. He (Bose) is keeping offenders there, giving them guns and bombs, and telling them to attack Trinamool workers. Let him stop this first," Banerjee alleged.

Further intensifying his criticism against Bose, Banerjee called the governor "incompetent" and alleged, "As long as this BJP's servant of a governor stays, no good will happen in West Bengal."