KOLKATA MAY 29: A day after Union government instructed the chief secretary of West Bengal to report to the Central government chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday mellowed her stand towards Central government and appealed to Union government to withdraw the order of asking chief secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay to report to the Central government on May 31, 2021, and joined the central cadre.
“I am ready to fight a legal battle. I am requesting the Central government to restrain the order. If PM asks me to touch his feet. I will do that if it helps the people of Bengal. But what you are doing is pure political vendetta. I would urge you to refrain from political vendetta. Because Bandhyopadhyay is a Bengali, you don’t have any right to insult him out of a political vendetta. I felt bad. They humiliated me by running the one-sided information circulated by PMO. When I was working, they were doing this. For the sake of people, I am ready to touch your feet. Stop this political vendetta. The humiliation should be stopped.” added Banerjee.
According to Banerjee she has taken the permission of Prime Minister before leaving the venue and submitted the documents of the affected places in Bengal due to Cyclone Yaas.
On Friday, the Union government, around 10.40 pm, issued an order asking Alapan Bandyopadhyay to report to Central government following Mamata skipping the review meeting with PM at Kalaikunda.
When Banerjee was asked whether they will move to the Court, Banerjee said, “We have learned that they have filed a caveat in Courts. If they move to the Court, we have to respond. But I appeal in folded hands before PM to withdraw the notice, solve it through talks.”
On Saturday, Mamata narrated the sequence of events that took place at Kalaikunda on Friday.
1. The Union government targeted me yesterday by giving out selective news. One-sided news, and there was no way of finding out what the whole story is. So, I decided to hold this press briefing to let you all know what happened
2. I had made plans to visit cyclone-hit areas. I had to travel to Sagar and Digha to see the damage caused by Cyclone Yaas. All my plans were made and ready, then suddenly we get a call that Prime Minister wants to visit Bengal to assess the situation after the cyclone. So,we made plans accordingly.
3. We were made to wait for 20 minutes and were told that the PM’s helicopter would land there, so we waited patiently. By the time were reached the place where the PM-Chief Minister meeting was to be held. We found out that the PM had already arrived there some time ago and that there was a meeting going on.
- We were asked to wait outside, told that there would be no entry at the moment because a meeting is going on. We waited patiently for a while. Then, when we asked again, we were told that no one could enter for the next hour.
- Then someone said to us that the meeting has moved to a conference hall, so the Chief Secretary and I decided to go there. When we reached there, we saw the PM was meeting with the Governor, central leaders, and even some MLAs of the opposition party.
- This was clearly against the brief. It was supposed to be only a PM-Chief Minister meeting. So we decided to submit our report to the PM, and then with the Prime Minister’s permission, we went to Digha. I sought the Prime Minister’s permission three times. I said, ‘Sir, with your kind permission, may I please leave? We need to go to Digha for assessment, and the weather is also not too good.” Only then did we leave.
- There were some vacant seats, but there was no need to sit as we left for Digha. Next, we see that a photo has been given to the press of vacant seats. That is not done.
- Every time the central government targets me like this. When the PM reviewed in Gujarat, Odisha, other states, opposition party members weren’t present. But in Bengal, opposition leaders were current. Every time you come here, you do something to disturb the functioning of our government.
9. Why do you humiliate us? Why do you target us? Why do you bother us? Only because you cannot digest the fact that you lost the election in Bengal? If the PM tells me to touch his feet in return for his help to Bengal, I am willing to do even that for the people of Bengal and the betterment of Bengal, but please do not play these dirty political games. Do not punish Bengal like this. Do not insult
and humiliate the Chief Secretary, who is working hard.10. I appeal to the Home Minister to take back this letter calling back the Chief Secretary. Why are you targeting him? By doing this, you are insulting all Chief Secretaries across the nation – in all states. Do you think
the IAS, IPS, and other civil services do not have a lobby? Do not insult or challenge them. They work very hard.
What Senior retired Bureaucrats say
A section of senior retired bureaucrats condemned the incident of Central government’s decision to withdraw the order asking the chief secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay to report to the Department of Personnel and Training, North Block by 10 am on May 31.
According to Jawhar Sircar, a retired senior IAS officer, the Center cannot force IAS officers to join a posting in Delhi, as it has done in the case of the Chief Secretary of West Bengal. They can threaten punitive steps but neither CAT nor Court would agree because it’s a politically vindictive transfer. On the last day of service, the procedure is to advertise vacancy ( which has not been done in this case), call for options( not done), the officer then gives his opportunity to go(not done in this case), the state then recommends his vote (not done), officers name features in the Central eligibility panel(not known), the posting offered matches his scale and grade (not available), and finally state has to release him (not done). Until then, it is not legally and procedurally correct. This is an absurdly politically vindictive transfer.
Basudeb Bandhyopadhyay, former chief secretary of West Bengal, also condemned the incident and said that “It is an absurd order from the Center. If both state and Center agree mutually and the Center withdraws the order, then it is OK. But otherwise, if the matter goes to the Court, chances are higher that the verdict may go in favor of Alapan Bandhopadhyay and the process adopted by the Center is not legally and procedurally correct.
According to Bandyopadhyay Rule 6(1) of IAS( cader) Rules 1954 primarily stipulates the delegation of an officer has to be through concurrence of state government and Central government. It further provides that in case of any disagreement decision of the Central the government will prevail.
The Union government, in their order, has stipulated Rule 6(1) of IAS cader rules 1954.As the initial stipulation of failed concurrence between the state and Central government has been fulfilled, invoking the provision of power of Central government does not appear to be correct.”
What Opposition leaders say
According to Congress leaders, they have not seen such vindictive the attitude of the Union government in the past.
Jairam Ramesh, Congress leader, tweeted that independent India has not seen a PM and HM with bigger egos and smaller minds. This movein the middle of a pandemic and the aftermath of a devastating cyclone shows how they are still licking their Bengal wounds post-elections.
Here is a tweet of Ramesh on this regard
BJP leaders, however blamed Mamata Banerjee for her decision not to meet with the PM as she always wanted to have a conflict with the Center.
Tathagatha Roy BJP leader and former Governor of Tripura said, “Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has got a much bigger ego than anyone else, and that’s why she has not been cordial enough to stay in the meeting called by the PM at Kalaikunda yesterday. The transfer is routine. It has nothing to do with yesterday’s incident.