Head to head

Clash over transfer of IPS officers burdens the already strained ties between the Centre and Bengal

- SONI MISHRA

POLITICAL TEMPERATURES in West Bengal are soaring in the run-up to the assembly polls. The clash between the Mamata Banerjee government and the Narendra Modi regime came to a head with the Centre's decision to send three IPS officers on deputation out of the state. Delhi’s decision came in the wake of an attack on BJP President J.P. Nadda's convoy during his state visit. It laid bare the fault lines in the strained relations between the Centre and the state government. It also reignited the debate over the Modi government's perceived disregard for the niceties of the country's federal structure.

The Centre claims that the decision to transfer the officers is well within its rights, while the Mamata regime contends that, as per the norms, the Union government may ask for names of officers to be sent on deputation but it is up to the state to release them or not.

“The practice so far has been for the Centre to requisition officers from a state based on the vacancies that exist. Never before has the Centre deputed officers by name,” said Kalyan Banerjee, Trinamool Congress's chief whip in the Lok Sabha. “Obviously, the departure from the norm was motivated by politics. The state is not bound to carry out the decision. I wrote a letter to Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla, telling him that he should act like a government official and not like a servant of Amit Shah.”

During his visit to Santiniketan, Home Minister Shah, however, said that the state “should quote the provisions of the federal structure and the Constitution to prove where the MHA orders have faltered”.