Kolkata: “Bengal loves those who love Bengal” was how CM Mamata Banerjee greeted RN Ravi after he was sworn in as Bengal’s 22nd governor by Calcutta High Court Chief Justice Sujoy Paul on Thursday.After the oath ceremony, Banerjee welcomed the new governor and his wife with traditional “uttariyas” (stoles). “Bengal and Bengalis respect people from all linguistic backgrounds. Everyone lives together peacefully in Bengal. But the main thing is that Bengal loves those who love Bengal. This is a characteristic of the Bengali people,” she told Ravi. “It is true that Bengal is the intellectual and cultural capital of India,” the governor was heard replying to the CM.In his first official statement, Ravi said he was “blessed and humbled” to serve the people of Bengal, “a great land that was the spiritual, intellectual and cultural capital of Bharat for several thousand years”.The governor said: “During the critical period of foreign invasions and occupation, which began systematically destroying our culture and identity, this land gave birth to numerous great persons and divine souls like Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Bhagwan Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Swami Vivekananda, Babu Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay — whose ‘Vande Mataram’ became the war cry of our national freedom movement — towering poet-intellectual Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore, revolutionary spiritual leader Sri Aurobindo and the great revolutionary freedom fighters Subhas Chandra Bose and Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee.” He then invoked Maa Durga, saying: “I pray to Maa Durga for wisdom and strength to serve the people of this land with utmost devotion.”Ravi succeeded CV Ananda Bose, who resigned suddenly on March 5. His appointment was announced the same evening. Ravi arrived in Kolkata on Wednesday, while Bose left the city for his hometown in Kerala.Ravi is the second Intelligence Bureau ‘supercop’ to be sworn in as a Bengal governor in the last one-and-a-half decades. Before the crucial 2011 assembly elections — which marked the end of the 34-year Left Front regime and the beginning of the Mamata Banerjee-led administration — former IB chief and NSA MK Narayanan was sworn in as governor. Ravi’s oath of office was administered by Chief Justice Paul in the presence of the CM, assembly speaker Biman Banerjee, senior minister and Kolkata mayor Firhad Hakim and Left Front chairman Biman Bose.However, no neta from the opposition BJP camp was present at the programme. Several bureaucrats, including chief secretary Nandini Chakravorty and senior police officers, also attended the event. The ceremony began with the singing of the national song and national anthem. Ravi was presented with a guard of honour at Lok Bhavan before being sworn in at the Sardar Patel Unity Hall.
