The true dimensions of the present can only be understood when measured against the past. Biman Banerjee, Speaker of the West Bengal assembly, looks back almost wistfully at the tenure of the previous governor. Before his nomination as India’s vice-president in July 2022, Jagdeep Dhankhar had had a rancorous three-year run at Kolkata Raj Bhavan—relations with the state government had deteriorated to such an extent that chief minister Mamata Banerjee had blocked him on Twitter. But compared to how things are now, Speaker Banerjee finds that phase “still acceptable”. Governor C.V. Ananda Bose, in office since November 18, 2022, finds himself entangled in a bitter war with the Trinamool Congress (TMC) regime that’s gone well beyond the usual standoffs about assent being withheld to bills. The hostilities have attained another scale, with the gubernatorial office entrapped in an
