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Journalism of Courage
One reason why the appointment of Governors for key states was stuck for so long was the quandary that the UPA government was facing in meeting the demand of key ally and Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee to not take the West Bengal government into confidence while finalising the next Governor. The common practice,while finalising the Governors for Opposition-ruled states,is that the Centre consults state governments and tries not to appoint any objectionable candidate. But in the case of West Bengal,Didi was adamant that no such courtesy should be extended to the Left Front Government. However,the Centre quietly mentioned a few probable candidates to West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee to gauge his reaction. In fact,Bhattacharjee did have some doubts over M K Narayanan,but Prime Minister Manmohan Singh spoke to him and managed to convince him. Mamata,of course,backed off when she realised that the appointment did not have the wholehearted approval of the state government.
