Bengal governor Ananda Bose to introduce ‘Kala-te’ for self-defence of women | Kolkata

West Bengal Governor CV Ananda Bose said on Saturday that he would introduce “Kala-te”, a new technique of martial arts combining Kalaripayattu and Karate for self-defence of women in the state.

“The Governor has decided to bring in Kalaripayattu – Kerala’s traditional martial arts – also to Bengal for the self-defence of women,” said a statement issued by the Raj Bhavan in Kolkata on Saturday evening.

This comes a day after Bose, who would be completing two years in office later this month, launched a series of public outreach programs on Friday including one named “Abhaya Plus” which aims to offer self-defence courses for girls in the eastern state.

“The new self-defence system shall be a blend of Kalaripayattu and Karate and is christened ‘Kala-te’. It shall emerge as a synthesis of Kalaripayattu and Karate and shall imbibe the best and easily learnable techniques of both,” the Raj Bhavan statement said.

On Friday, Bose launched a month-long program “Apna Bharat – Jagta Bengal”. It comprises nine separate programs – “File to Field”, in which Bose will visit 250 places across the state, “Duare Rajyapal”, in which he will visit tribal areas and attend distress calls made by any person, “Governor in Campus”, in which he will visit schools and colleges to interact with students, “Jan ki Baat”, aimed to interact with any person who wishes to contact the Governor directly, “Abhaya Plus”, offering self-defence courses for girls, “Governor’s Citizen Connect”, in which he will connect with citizens across multiple platforms, “Governor’s Award Scheme” in which citizens would be awarded, “Governor’s Scholarship Scheme”, a scholarship for meritorious students and “Governor’s Golden Group” aimed to give opportunity to people who have or want to contribute for the benefit of the society.

The Governor while attending a program at Barasat in North 24 Parganas said that the “Abhaya Plus” program, which was launched at Raj Bhavan in Kolkata, would soon be extended to the villages across Bengal.

The ruling Trinamool Congress on Friday had accused Bose of running a parallel system to assist the opposition parties in the state after the latter launched the program.

“As per the Constitution the post of Governor was necessarily created to assist the elected government in a state. He doesn’t have any political or administrative role other than aiding and assisting the government. Unfortunately, this Governor wanted to create a parallel administration to assist BJP. It is sad that he has decided to approach people separately, to create an idea that he has the capacity to govern the state. This is not acceptable. He has spent two years as an agent of the BJP-led Centre. The sooner he takes leave the better for the state,” said Jay Prakash Majumdar, TMC state vice-president and spokesperson.

Like his predecessor, Bose has been having a strained relationship with the TMC-led government in the state over a host of issues. The acrimonious relation reached a new low in September this year when Bose said that he would socially boycott the chief minister when doctor’s protests were going on in the state.

“The Governor is the executive head of the state. If he thinks that the state government is failing to deliver and takes some initiative, the BJP has no comments over this. We believe that till the TMC government is in power there will be no change in the condition,” Samik Bhattacharya, BJP spokesperson, told HT on Friday.