After assuming the post of Prime Minister for the third time on May 5th, Prime Minister Mamata Banerjee first requested an extension for her Chief Secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay, who was due to retire on May 31st was the key to the smooth running of some of the welfare projects Government that helped create a huge pool of beneficiaries and later supporters.
The overwhelming electoral mandate in favor of the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) is due to the social policy development model that Mamata introduced for the 100 million people in her state. And this was largely possible because Mamata was able to task the bureaucracy with overseeing the distribution and delivery mechanism and preventing political interference and nepotism. The government succeeded in the last three months of the second term only because Bandyopadhyay, as chief secretary, took the lead in delivering the state programs – including the health insurance card – to your doorstep.
Although some of the projects were the brainchild of survey strategist Prashant Kishor, it was Alapan’s conscientiousness and leadership that pushed them through. In her third term, Mamata is planning many more welfare programs such as rations on the doorstep, a monthly allowance of 500 rupees for housewives, and a 10 lakh rupee credit card for college graduate students so that she cannot afford to go to Bandyopadhyay to let. So she looked for an extension for him. The center granted it given the current Covid situation and other factors such as Cyclone Yaas.
In addition to being a meticulous taskmaster, Bandyopadhyay is a smooth speaker, excellent negotiator, and always-on-service boss. It is quite relevant to say that he has always been a naive boy with the various prime ministers he served. As District Judge for South 24 Parganas District and later as Secretary of Information and Culture, he was the favorite official of Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee (the CPI (M) Chief Minister from 2001 to 2011). It wasn’t long before he won Mamata’s trust after the political regime change. Since then, he has helped Mamata many times, notably as the Interim Election Commissioner (SEC) in 2015 when the then-SEC SRUpadhyay resigned, allegedly under pressure from the TMC after withholding the results of the citizen poll citing rampant manipulation and violence by the party in force. Bandyopadhyay took over, making sure the results were announced in a timely manner and the allegations swept under the rug.
“He has a noble disposition and a knack for getting things done quietly and efficiently. The letters he writes reflect his personality: diplomatically and politically correct,” says a bureaucrat who did not want to be quoted.
In the lengthy letter war between Governor Jagdeep Dhankar and Mamata, it is rumored that Bandyopadhyay wrote the prime minister’s refutations, which often comprised 4-5 pages in the most exquisite expressions and with reference to constitutional provisions.
Dhankar also took note of Bandyopadhyay’s expertise as a draftsman in one of his reflections. Indeed, Banerjee’s five-page appeal to the Prime Minister to withdraw his recall from the central deputation was allegedly also written by Bandyopadhyay. It had the right mix of emotions, reasons, the stirring up of the Bengali regional pride and everything that would stir the conscience of the provincial population.
Aside from that, he is known for solving many of the problems that pissed off the government. The bottlenecks in the east-west and north-south expansion of the metro (from Garia to Dakshineswar) were ironed out when Bandyopadhyay was Minister of Transport.
Mamata Banerjee found it difficult to contain her supporters when allegations of corruption emerged over the distribution of relief supplies for the victims of the Amphan hurricane. It was Bandyopadhyay’s idea at the time to open a new window and give real victims a second chance to seek help. While this was seen as an attempt by the government to reverse its previous mistakes, it did help to improve its leadership image. In fact, the former chief secretary’s idea was to involve the administrative officials in the implementation of government programs, which has helped to alleviate the corruption complaints to some extent.
The issue of the Swasthyasathi card in the name of the matriarch of the family was also his idea. In fact, Mamata was planning to provide doorstep delivery (Duare Traan) aid to the victims of Cyclone Yaas when the central state fiasco happened over Bandyopadhyay.
It is then surprising why a person so committed to the rulebook has ignored it in the final days of his tenure. It’s not that he wasn’t aware that there would be a price to skip the Prime Minister’s review meeting and fail to receive and see the PM as per protocol. The real Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived at the venue, Kalaikunda Air Force Base, far ahead of schedule, but that can’t be an excuse for the Chief Secretary not being there to see him.
As if being late and not saying goodbye to the Prime Minister wasn’t enough, he and Mamata later rushed the meeting, handed over a report, and left on the pretext of a pre-scheduled meeting. There was no end to the violations of protocol and official regulations.
It is said that Bandyopadhyay agreed to fulfill Mamata’s command because he owed the Prime Minister for many things and because he also had absolute confidence in him. The center has presented him with a complaint of violating the Disaster Management Act for violating the Disaster Management Act, but Mamata has already made ample compensation: she reinstated Bandyopadhyay as chief advisor with a hefty package and assured him that the state would continue with the center fighting becomes the topic of fighting. The West Bengal government is also bearing the costs of the litigation.
Read India Today magazine by downloading the latest issue: https://www.indiatoday.com/emag
إرسال تعليق