What Centre Needs To Do On Sorting Out The Controversy Over Bengal Chief Secretary’s Transfer

It is important to choose one’s battles wisely and to fight the most important ones while letting the rest go, said well-known motivator and writer C.Joybell C.

And this is exactly the advice that the Centre now needs to heed to bring an end to the unsavoury controversy triggered by its order last week transfering top Bengal bureaucrat Alapan Bandopadhyay to New Delhi.

The ill-advised move on the part of the Union Government to transfer Bandopadhyay, a 1987-batch IAS officer, to New Delhi without assigning any reason has come in for a lot of flak, including from serving and former bureaucrats.

At the root of the entire controversy was last Friday’s meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to review the damage caused by Cyclone Yaas.

Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee was invited to the meeting, held at the Air Force base at Kalaikunda in Bengal’s Paschim Medinipur district.

But Mamata Banerjee took umbrage to the presence of state Governor Jagdeep Dhankar, leader of opposition Suvendu Adhikari (who defeated her in Nandigram) and union minister Debashree Chaudhuri (Lok Sabha MP from Bengal’s Raiganj).

The chief minister, accompanied by Alapan Bandopadhyay, reportedly kept Modi and the others waiting for over 20 minutes.

She then met him for a few minutes only to hand over a memorandum demanding Rs 20,000 crore for reconstruction of coastal areas and the Sunderbans that had been battered by the cyclone.

Having done that, she informed the Prime Minister that she had a few prior engagements and, the chief secretary in tow, walked out of the conference room.

The BJP rightly pointed out that Mamata Banerjee violated protocol and basic decorum. Mamata Banerjee may have a strong dislike for Modi, or Governor Dhankar, or Suvendu Adhikari. But propriety, protocol and decorum demanded that she attend the meeting chaired by the Prime Minister. As a chief minister, she ought to have shown proper respect to the post of the Prime Minister, the Governor and even the Leader of Opposition.

However, to target and punish Alapan Bandopadhyay for Mamata Banerjee’s acts of omission and commission was ill-advised and misguided.

And it portrayed the centre in a poor light as not only being petty and vengeful, but also not having the spunk to cross swords with Mamata Banerjee directly and targeting, instead, a bureaucrat.

An understandably miffed Modi approved the penal action against Alapan Bandopadhyay; the transfer orders served on the latter could not have been issued without Modi’s sanction. Especially since the Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT) which issued the orders is headed by Modi.

Mamata Banerjee had written to Modi on 10 May seeking a three-month extension for Alapan Bandopadhyay, who was to retire on May 31, on the grounds that his services would be required to help Bengal fight the pandemic.

Bandopadhyay, as the chief secretary, was heading a task force and other groups set up to fight the pandemic and its effects.

The Centre, on 24 May, replied to Banerjee’s request granting the extension to the chief secretary that she had sought.

But in the cryptic letter sent to Alapan Bandopadhyay on Friday (28 May) evening, the DoPT simply informed him that he had been transferred to the Union Ministry for Public Grievances and Pensions (also headed by Modi) and asked him to report to the DoPT at North Block at 10 am on 31 May (Monday).

The DoPT issued a second letter addressed to Alapan Bandopadhyay on Monday noting that he had failed to report to the DoPT at North Block that morning and directing him to present himself at the department on Tuesday.

This letter was received a little before 5 pm on Monday. But by that time, Bandopadhyay had already taken retirement and had been appointed as ‘chief advisor to chief minister’.

The Centre’s penal action was thus defeated, and New Delhi was left with egg on its face.

“The Union Government granted an extension to the chief secretary to enable the Bengal government to utilize his services to fight the pandemic. But that very purpose stood negated and completely defeated when the Union Government requisitioned his services during this period of extension (after May 31),” said former chief secretary Ardhendu Sen.

Other former bureaucrats said that the DoPT’s letter to the chief secretary was insulting. “The letter did not mention any post that Bandopadhyay would be required to join in New Delhi. That is highly insulting for a very senior bureaucrat,” said former bureaucrat Bikram Sarkar.

Sen said that the norm is for the Union Government to communicate to the state government its desire to requisition the services of an IAS officer serving in that state and mention the purpose for seeking his transfer.

“The state may agree to the transfer and if it does not agree, then the Union Government’s will prevails. But this was not done,” he added.

Ultimately, Alapan Bandopadhyay decided not to avail of the extension granted to him and retired on Monday (May 31).

And in what can only be described as a big snub to the Union Government, Mamata Banerjee appointed him (Bandopadhyay) as her ‘chief advisor’ for three years.

“I would also have done what Alapan Bandopadhyay did (not take the extension). Bureaucrats cannot become casualties in the crossfire between the Union and state government,” said former chief secretary Basudeb Banerjee.

Many other bureaucrats (serving and retired) who spoke to Swarajya said that Bandopadhyay was unfairly targeted by the Centre.

Through its ham-handedness and ill-advised move, the Union Government handed Mamata Banerjee a lot of ammunition to target Modi and the BJP.

At a press meet on Monday (31 May) where she announced Alapan Bandopadhyay’s decision to retire and his immediate appointment as her ‘chief advisor’, she heaped scorn on Modi and dared the Prime Minister to act against her. She also used the incident as an opportunity to buttress her credentials as a fearless politician who can take on the BJP juggernaut.

The DoPT, it is learnt, is now planning to issue a show cause notice to Alapan Bandopadhyay for his failure to report to New Delhi.

Having burnt its fingers through its unnecessary and ill-advised action against the chief secretary, the Union Government would be well advised to bring the curtains down on this and desist from any more moves that can only bring more embarrassment to itself.

Legal experts say that if challenged in a court of law, the Union Government is most likely to get a sharp rap on its knuckles for its ‘unjustifiable moves’ against Alapan Bandopadhyay.