The chief secretary (CS) reports directly to the chief minister (CM) and is expected to follow instructions by his CM. In this particular case, where the PM was allegedly made to wait by the Bengal CM before she arrived at the venue only to leave almost immediately thereafter with the CS for other pressing appointments. There is little that CS Alapan Bandyopadhyay, accompanying the CM, could do about the meeting, effectively a non-starter.

Never before in the history of federal India has an innocent state CS been treated so roughly and shabbily by an arrogant central machinery. There is little to justify such an action which has been condemned by several retired civil servants across the country. Predictably, soon-to-retire Bandyopadhyay did not accept a short extension of his service, granted by the Centre. He stepped down from the CS post on normal retirement.

Mamata Banerjee was, however, quick to appoint Bandyopadhyay as her chief adviser for three years to retain his services through the difficult times in the face of the pandemic and cyclones — Amphan and Yaas. The CM wrote a five-page letter to the PM, asking him to “rescind” the “unilateral, unconstitutional and unprecedented” transfer order. The CM’s letter said the state “cannot release , and is not releasing , its chief secretary at this critical hour.” Does the two-act political drama between the centre and the state, led by two belligerent ruling political party heads, end with Bandyopadhyay’s retirement followed by reappointment? Unlikely. Mamata Banerjee, who personally lost the election from the Nandigram constituency to BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari, needs to be elected from another constituency within six months to lead her party in the Assembly and stay as the CM. The question is: can the Election Commission constitutionally decide to hold the by-election after six months? If yes, does Mamata Banerjee lose the CM’s post before the by-election?

The Delhi-Kolkata political relations seem to have gone beyond repair, at least until 2024 Lok Sabha election. Backed by her party’s massive mandate in the April state assembly election, despite a strong campaign by BJP, led by the PM, home minister, party’s national president and UP CM, Mamata Banerjee is now in a much stronger position to take the Modi government politically head on. The tension between the centre and the state seems to be gathering momentum. Unfortunately, senior bureaucrats from both the IPS and IAS cadres are being made to play pawns. Incidentally, the BJP top brass don’t seem to be going any far to discipline rival TMC bosses in Bengal.

Just last December, the Modi government had summoned three Bengal-cadre IPS officers for central deputation after yet another standoff. The three IPS officers were in-charge of BJP National President J.P. Nadda’s security when his convoy on way to Diamond Harbour was attacked by the public, allegedly TMC activists. However, the Mamata Banerjee government not only rejected the central deputation order on the officers, but also promoted two of them within days. Maybe, Mamata Banerjee decided to follow the example of yet another woman CM during another BJP-led regime at the centre, nearly 20 years ago. In 2001, the late PM AtalBehari Vajpayee’s NDA government summoned three IPS officers, all commissioner ranking, in the newly elected J. Jayalalithaa’s AIADMK government for raiding and arresting former Tamil Nadu CM Karunanidhi along with two senior Vajpayee government’s DMK ministers, Murasoli Maran and T R Balu. While the centre sacked TN governor Fathima Beevi, Jayalalithaa refused to spare the IPS officers. On retirement, one of the IPS officers, Christopher Nelson, was appointed by her as a State Planning Commission member, and later as the state Information Commissioner.

If anything, these cases prove how weak is India’s democratically elected federal government structure. The centre’s constant fiddling with the opposition power in states has made the constitutionally granted federalism in India effectively unmanageable unlike in other federations such as the US, France, Germany, the UK, Australia, Canada, Russia, Malaysia, Nigeria and Venezuela. Given the state of India’s social, cultural and lingual diversity, the fathers of Indian Constitution were right to enshrine a federal system of governance for the country.

Unfortunately, they did not see how the system could denigrate to the extent that the centre and opposition states would often behave like sworn enemies. The centre-state rivalry had often led to the President’s rule in states. Almost all political parties and their combinations that ruled India’s union government had failed to strike accord with strong opposition-governed states. In fact, the Nehru-Gandhi led Congress regimes at the centre were the worst offenders. The country has, so far, witnessed 115 times of the President’s rule. Of them, as many as 84 were under Congress-led central government. Interestingly, the Janata party alliance, which was in power for only two years between 1977 and 1979, recommended the President’s rule for 16 times. BJP-led central government recommended President’s rule seven times. West Bengal itself came under President's rule for four times.

Considering Mamata Banerjee’s massive election victory, no power in the Centre can immediately think of imposing a President’s rule in Bengal. At the same time, given the financial powers of the central government, it would not make much sense for the state to continue with its overt animosity with the centre at the cost of the state’s economic development. The BJP government too has a big political stake in the state.

In 2019 Lok Sabha polls, BJP made an impressive presence in Bengal winning as many as 18 out of 42 seats. BJP had won only two Lok Sabha seats in 2014. This time, BJP has emerged as the second largest party in the Bengal assembly winning 77 seats as against only three in 2016. Although this was mainly at the cost of Left parties and Congress, which failed to win even a single seat. Politically, BJP needs to rework its strategy towards the state and its government to enhance its image before the next Lok Sabha election.
(IPA Service)