West Bengal: Army flags Mamata allegation to governor, seeks clarity

The Indian Army’s Eastern Command has sought the intervention of West Bengal governor C.V. Ananda Bose following chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s recent allegation that a senior Army officer was using the Fort William command base and working on the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls at the behest of the BJP.

According to a senior Lok Bhavan (formerly Raj Bhavan) official, two Army generals from Fort William met the governor last week and submitted a communication reportedly objecting to Banerjee’s claims. While details of the discussion were not immediately clear, the official said the governor had taken “serious note” of the matter and conveyed it to the relevant authorities in New Delhi.

“The Army officers are understood to have spoken to the governor and requested his intervention in the matter. The Army is peeved with the chief minister’s recent remarks suggesting that a commandant of the forces was working for the BJP while remaining posted at Fort William,” the official told PTI.

Banerjee had made the allegation on 13 January while addressing a press conference at the state secretariat Nabanna, without naming the officer in question. “I have information that a commandant at Fort William is working on SIR to lend support to the BJP. He is sitting there and doing the work of the BJP party office. I request them with folded hands to desist from such activities,” she said.

Following last week’s meeting, the governor is understood to have approached the defence ministry, drawing its attention to what he reportedly views as a matter of gravity. Asked earlier about Banerjee’s comments, Bose had said, “Let me first verify for myself what she said. If this violates any constitutional propriety, I will certainly intervene.”

A senior official at Fort William confirmed the meeting with the governor, saying, “Two of our officers met the honourable governor recently regarding the comments made by the honourable chief minister of West Bengal. They discussed the issue with the honourable governor, who assured them that he would look into the matter.”

The exchange comes amid an already charged political environment in poll-bound West Bengal, where the Election Commission’s ongoing SIR exercise has prompted acrimonious exchanges between the ruling Trinamool Congress and the BJP, with the Left and Congress also weighing in.

Banerjee’s remarks drew sharp responses across the political spectrum. “Mamata Banerjee thinks she can say anything because she considers herself the president of West Bengal,” BJP’s state unit president Samik Bhattacharya had said. “She doesn’t consider West Bengal a state within India; she thinks of Bengal as a sovereign nation and herself its president,” he added, dismissing the allegation as “baseless”.

CPI(M) state secretary Md Salim termed the allegation a “serious issue”, arguing that the chief minister should write to defence minister Rajnath Singh and “prove the truth in her statement”, adding, “We must find out the truth behind this allegation.”

With PTI inputs