Army Seeks Governor’s Intervention Over Mamata’s Fort William Remark

In response to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's recent accusation that a senior army officer was utilising the Fort William command base and working on the SIR exercise at the BJP's request, the Indian Army's Eastern Command has asked West Bengal Governor CV Ananda Bose to intervene.

Two Army generals from Fort William, the command headquarters, met with Governor Bose last week and reportedly sent a letter disputing Banerjee's assertions, according to a top official in the Lok Bhavan.

The Lok Bhavan official stated that Bose had taken serious note of the issue and brought it to the attention of appropriate officials at the Centre, despite the fact that the specifics of the meeting were not immediately apparent.

“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,” said the official.

Without elucidating further details on the identity of the officer concerned, the chief minister claimed on January 13 that the Army personnel were using the command base to carry out political activities in the wake of the controversial SIR of electoral rolls in the state.

"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," Banerjee had said while addressing a press conference from the state secretariat, Nabanna.

Following last week’s meeting at the Lok Bhavan, it is understood that the Bengal Governor has approached the Defence Ministry in this connection and has brought to its notice the gravity of the matter, the official said.

"Let me first verify for myself what she said. If this violates any constitutional propriety, I will certainly intervene," Bose had said earlier when asked to respond to Banerjee’s comments.

When contacted, a senior official at Fort William confirmed that the meeting had taken place at the Lok Bhavan.

“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 official said.

Banerjee's remarks sparked strong reactions from all parties in an already tense political environment in poll-bound Bengal, where the ongoing Election Commission's exercise of Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls has drawn sharp fault lines between the ruling TMC and its main rival BJP, with the Left and Congress also putting their hats in the ring.

"Mamata Banerjee thinks she can say anything because she considers herself the President of West Bengal,” Samik Bhattacharya, president of the BJP's Bengal unit, sarcastically said when asked to respond to Banerjee's allegation.

"She doesn't consider West Bengal a state within India; she thinks of Bengal as a sovereign nation and herself its president," Bhattacharya continued, dismissing the CM’s remarks as “baseless”.

Calling Banerjee's allegation a "serious issue", CPI(M) state secretary Md Salim had maintained that the chief minister must pursue the truth behind this, write to the Defence Minister and prove the truth in her statement.

"This is an absolutely serious issue. We must find out the truth behind this allegation," the Left leader had said.