Trinamul alleges Centre of 'terrorising' Bengal officials- BJP has been blaming Trinamul for the convoy attack

Statement comes in response to the Union home ministry’s central deputation call for three IPS officers who were tasked with BJP president J.P. Nadda’s security

Trinamul MP Kalyan Banerjeee (right) at a news meet in Calcutta on Friday: File picture

Meghdeep Bhattacharyya   |   TT   |   Calcutta   |    13.12.20  :   Trinamul on Saturday alleged that the Centre was “terrorising” IAS and IPS officers in Bengal in response to the Union home ministry’s central deputation call for three IPS officers who were tasked with BJP president J.P. Nadda’s security for the Diamond Harbour event on Thursday.

The BJP has been blaming Trinamul for the  convoy attack en route to Diamond Harbour, the constituency of Trinamul heir-apparent Abhishek Banerjee.

Trinamul veteran Kalyan Banerjee on behalf of the party shot a missive to Union home secretary Ajay Bhalla, urging him not to “behave like a servant of Amit Shah (union home minister)”.

“Your motive is very clear that by taking them you want to create pressure upon the said three police officers. It is shameful and dangerous that all laws have been thrown out in the river by your action at the instance (sic) of Shri Amit Shah,” wrote Serampore MP Banerjee, also Trinamul’s chief whip in the Lok Sabha.

“You are indirectly trying to impose emergency in the state of West Bengal. You are terrorising all IAS and IPS officers of our state. Your every path suffers from mala fide exercise of power,” he added.

Banerjee, also a lawyer, told Bhalla that he disapproved the move through the letter on behalf of his party as Parliament was not in session.

“Do not be a servant of Amit Shah but behave like an appropriate central government high official,” he wrote.

Sources in Trinamul said it would tackle the problem on both fronts, administrative and political.

In the letter, Banerjee also raised questions on the ministry’s summoning of state chief secretary Alapan Bandhyopadhyay and director-general of state police Virendra to Delhi for an explanation on Bengal’s law and order in the wake of the Nadda-convoy incident.

“Can you, under the Constitution of India and any other law, intervene in respect of law and order of the state? It appears that with a political motive and at the insistence of your minister, who is a political person belonging to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), you have issued the said letter,” wrote Banerjee.

“You are trying to coerce the officers of the state of West Bengal with political vindictiveness. It appears also you are interfering with the federal structure embodied under the scheme of the Constitution of India,” he added.

Trinamul also started taking out rallies in every block and ward of the state to condemn Rabindranath Tagore’s birthplace gaffe by Bengal BJP during Nadda’s visit. On Wednesday, the BJP state unit’s official handle had issued a tweet with a quote, attributing it to Nadda, stating that Tagore was born in Visva-Bharati. Sources in BJP attributed the mistake to its IT cell. The tweet has since been taken down.