Mamata govt decides not to send CS, DGP to Delhi despite MHA summons

The MHA had summoned Chief Secretary and DGP Virendra asking them to present themselves on December 14 for an explanation on the law and order situation in the state

A defiant West Bengal government on Friday decided not to send the state’s chief secretary and police chief to New Delhi in compliance with Union Home Ministry’s summons in the wake of a mob attack on BJP chief J P Nadda’s convoy, the latest flashpoint between the state and the Centre.

Chief Secretary Alapan Bandopadhyay wrote to Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla, saying he has been directed to request to “dispense with the presence of the state officials” in the meeting convened on December 14, an obvious indication that he was just obeying the state government’s order.

The MHA had on Friday summoned Bandopadhyay and DGP Virendra on December 14 for an explanation on the law and order situation in the state, following Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar’s report on the attack on Nadda’s convoy by alleged supporters of the ruling TMC.

The top bureaucrat of the state said as requested by the Home Secretary on December 10, the state had indeed made elaborate arrangements for security. 

“The incidents regarding Z-category protectees are already being examined at our end. The West Bengal Police had provided a bulletproof car and a pilot to Shri J P Nadda, which was in addition to the escort (vehicle by state, personnel by CRPF) and PSOs (CRPF) he is entitled as a Z- category protectee,” Bandopadhyay wrote in the letter. Noting that three cases have been registered in connection with Thursday’s violence, including two for vandalism, he said, seven persons have already been arrested.

West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on Friday said he had sent a report to the Centre in the backdrop of the attack. Pulling Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee up for her repeated remarks calling the BJP a party of outsiders, Dhankhar asked her to desist from such politics.