West Bengal: Breach of IAS protocol at Yaas review meet, says Suvendu Adhikari

KOLKATA: Leader of opposition in the Bengal assembly Suvendu Adhikari has squarely blamed the Bengal chief minister for the circumstances at the PM’s Kalaikunda review meeting on Friday that preceded the recall order to chief secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay.
“I was there. The chief minister came to the review meeting along with the chief secretary after some time. She spoke to the PM for one-and-ahalf minutes, presented some papers and walked out with the CS. This is a breach of IAS protocol. The Bengal CM won’t allow the state bureaucracy to observe protocol,” Adhikari said on Saturday.
“The PM waited for half an hour after the meeting for state officials to present a powerpoint presentation on the extent of the cyclone devastation. He also asked additional secretary Bhaskar Kulbe to find out if state officials would like to make any presentation. Kulbe came back and said that state officials had nothing to add after the CM had given the papers,” he said.
The BJP leader also reminded that the CM didn’t send any state official to the meeting when Modi came to Kalaikunda after Cyclone Fani in 2019. “She also gave a miss to a number of Covid meetings the PM had with CMs,” he said.
Refuting the CM’s “preoccupations”, Adhikari said: “The PMO informed both Odisha and Bengal about the PM’s itinerary on Thursday night. Accordingly, the CM rescheduled her programme. She changed her mind after she came to know that the leader of the opposition was invited. The Bengal CM had made up her mind to skip the meeting but changed her stance later realizing that her absence might deprive Bengal of central support.”
The LoP tore into the CM’s version of the “BJP political meeting” at Kalaikunda. “The PMO had invited Odisha opposition leader Pradipta Naik too. It is another matter that Naik had Covid and couldn’t make it,” he said. The PMO had also invited Congress Lok Sabha leader Adhir Chowdhury to the meeting, Adhikari said. “Chowdhury was in Delhi and couldn’t attend,” he said.
Adhikari urged Banerjee to shun her “arrogance” and “petty politics” in the interests of the state. “She (CM) doesn’t need to touch the PM’s feet. The only thing she needs to do is to abide by the Constitution. I have no inhibition showing respect to her as my CM. Similarly, she should have some respect for the PM,” he said.