Bengal’s Compulsive Defiance Of Centre Setting Dangerous Precedent, Needs To Be Curbed Immediately

Ever since the Trinamool Congress headed by Mamata Banerjee came to power in Bengal in 2011, differences between the state and the Union governments have cropped up over a wide range of issues.

And since 2014, since Prime Minister Narendra Modi took over the reins in New Delhi, these differences have only become sharper. The mercurial Banerjee has opposed almost every action of the Union Government and tried to chart her own course.

Be it the Swachh Bharat Mission, the Ayushman Bharat health insurance scheme, free food grains for the poor and marginalised and many other welfare schemes, Bengal has been pitting itself against the Union Government, often to its own detriment.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has chosen not to bring Bengal under these schemes, thus depriving millions of residents of the state of the huge benefits accruing from them.

Banerjee has chosen not to attend many crucial meetings of Niti Aayog, the Inter-State Council and other such bodies.

She has rarely allowed bureaucrats of the state to attend important administrative meetings that the Union Government routinely holds with states.

Over the last one year since the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) returned to power and dashed Banerjee’s fond hopes of playing an important role in New Delhi, she has only stepped up her opposition to the Union Government.

She has often launched a diatribe against the Centre over a wide range of issues and has been constantly harping on her pet theme of ‘step-motherly treatment’ of Bengal by New Delhi.

Banerjee has often accused the Union Government of not giving the state its due in terms of financial allocations and has, for the past nine years, demanded a moratorium on repayment of the approximately Rs 2.56 lakh crore loan Bengal owes to the Centre. She claims that the loan has been notched up by the earlier Left Front government and she should not be burdened by it. Never mind that she has added hugely to the state’s debt burden with her profligacy and mindless populism.

The Covid-19 pandemic has given her yet another opportunity to pit herself against the Union Government. She has vehemently opposed the visits of the two Inter-Ministerial Central Teams (IMCTs) to Bengal, did not cooperate with them and ensured that they faced hurdles.

Vital information was not shared with the IMCTs. She has disregarded many advisories sent by the Union Government and has been allegedly fudging figures to convey the impression that the pandemic is under control in Bengal.

All this has set a dangerous example.

Take the case of Bengal unilaterally stopping the movement of trucks carrying essential commodities to Bangladesh under bilateral agreements between the two countries. The Union Home Ministry wrote to the state government to allow movement of these trucks through the Indo-Nepal, Indo-Bhutan and Indo-Bangladesh borders and send a compliance report to the Union Government.

Not only did Bengal not send a compliance report, it continued to disallow movement of trucks to Bangladesh and also stopped drivers of trucks that had gone over to that country from crossing into India.

Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla wrote to Bengal chief secretary Rajiva Sinha Tuesday evening reminding him that new guidelines on lockdown measures expressly prohibit states from stopping movement of cargo to neighbouring countries.

Bhalla said in his letter that the “unilateral action of the Government of West Bengal to stop cross land border movement of essential goods would have larger implications for the Indian Government with regard to its legally binding international commitments”.

Bhalla warned Sinha that the actions of the Bengal government “amounts to violation of orders issued by the MHA under the Disaster Management Act, 2005” and also violated Articles 253, 256 and 257 of the Indian Constitution.

Even though Bhalla directed the state chief secretary to allow the movement of trucks to Bangladesh and send its compliance report to New Delhi by Tuesday evening itself, Bengal has been sitting on it. Bengal home secretary Alapan Bandopadhyay told the media Wednesday that “the issue will be comprehensively addressed”.

A few years ago, when the UPA was in power, Mamata Banerjee caused a major upset in Indo-Bangla ties by opposing the proposed Teesta water-sharing agreement. The failure to ink this agreement remains the biggest irritant in smoother bilateral ties, but she has not budged from her opposition to granting Bangladesh its due rights as a lower riparian state.

Mamata Banerjee had, in December 2016, made a ridiculous claim that the army had been deployed to overthrow her government. She spent 33 hours in her office at the state secretariat ostensibly to “safeguard democracy”. While her claim turned out to be blatantly false, the danger and damage she inflicted was incalculable.

And what’s more, politicians like Mayawati, Kejriwal and even Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad had supported Mamata Banerjee’s false claims that time. “This just proves that even an ill-thought, irresponsible and false claim or statement made by Mamata Banerjee casting aspersions on an institution as revered as the Army can do immense harm to the nation,” said a senior BJP leader.

That is why, he added, it is high time the Union Government takes strong action that will discourage Bengal from going down this dangerous and irresponsible path of adventurism. The Bengal chief minister cannot be allowed to harm the federal structure and undermine the country’s institutions, India’s unity and integrity and ties with other nations.

While many want invocation of Article 356 (imposition of President’s Rule), such a step would not be judicious. Because this is exactly what Banerjee may be wanting.

It will give her a golden opportunity to wash her hands off and walk away from the mess, including the pandemic mess, in Bengal that is largely of her own making. And it will leave her free to do what she is best at--agitate. She will project herself as a martyr and gain a lot of sympathy that may bring her back to power next year.

Instead, the Union Government ought to invoke Article 355--directing the state to act in accordance with the Constitution. There are other provisions of the Constitution that New Delhi can invoke against Bengal without dismissing the Trinamool government.

Allowing matters to drift will only give Bengal more opportunities to undermine India’s integrity and institutions, and New Delhi must not allow that at any cost.