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Mamata Banerjee & her IPS officers — 9 joined Trinamool in 10 years, 4 were ministers

The latest officer to join Trinamool Congress is Humayun Kabir, the former commissioner of Chandannagar. He joined the party Monday, 12 days after quitting service. 

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Kolkata: On 7 February, while addressing his first election rally in West Bengal, Prime Minister Narendra Modi accused Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of accommodating political leaders blamed for the Nandigram violence that killed 14 farmers in March 2007. 

The Trinamool Congress (TMC) retaliated strongly, insisting that it had inducted no such leader. The TMC claim is right — the CPI(M) was ruling the state then and none of its leaders blamed for the violence have been inducted into Mamata’s party. 

Nandigram is an emotive issue and helped the party topple the Left rule in the state

What the TMC will find harder to explain, however, is the presence of Satyajit Banerjee, a former IPS officer, in the party. 

Banerjee, inducted into the TMC in November 2020, was among the officers specially deputed to Nandigram in 2007. He is among the two IPS officers that the CBI had charge-sheeted for the police firing that left 14 people dead.   

Banerjee’s presence in the Trinamool, however, is no anomaly. He is among the host of former IPS officers, who had a volatile relationship with Mamata Banerjee during her Opposition days, but have been well accommodated in her party, cabinet and across government positions. 

In the past 10 years, over her two terms in power, Mamata Banerjee has made at least nine retired IPS officers members of her Trinamool Congress. 

The latest officer to join her party is Humayun Kabir, the former commissioner of Chandannagar. He joined the Trinamool Monday, 12 days after quitting service. 


Also read: Trinamool didn’t see it coming but ‘suffocated’ Dinesh Trivedi had many reasons to quit


Didi’s super cops 

The first such officer to be inducted into the Trinamool was Choudhury Mohan Jatua, who joined the party in 2000. Jatua served as an MLA between 2001 and 2006 but since 2009 has been the Mathurapur MP.   

Of the remaining eight IPS officers, five were MLAs in the chief minister’s first term between 2011 and 2016. Four of them were also in her cabinet.  

In the past two months, three more former IPS officers have joined — Satyajit Banerjee, Humayun Kabir and Kalyan Banerjee.

In her first tenure in power, the former IPS officers who went on to become TMC MLAs included Dr Upen Biswas, a former CBI special director; H.A. Sawfi, who retired as the state’s additional director general (ADG) of police in 2005; Raachpal Singh, who retired as an IG in 2002; Sultan Singh, who retired as an ADG and Abani Joardar, who retired as DIG just before the assembly elections of 2011.     

Sawfi and Raachpal were key members of Mamata’s security team during her days in Opposition between 2009 and 2011. Biswas is a respected officer known for his investigation into Lalu Yadav’s fodder scam. 

The trio, along with Joardar, were all inducted into Mamata’s first cabinet. Biswas got the backward class welfare department while Safwi was given charge of the state’s correctional services department. 

Raachpal’s portfolio was shuffled at least four times, from tourism to planning to cooperation and back to planning departments. Joardar was handed a ministerial berth without any portfolio. 

Biswas and Raachpal contested elections in 2016, and while the former lost his seat, Raachpal retained it and is the only former IPS officer who is still a TMC MLA. Biswas now serves as the chairperson of SC, ST, OBC development commission. 

Safwi and Joardar passed away a few years ago while Sultan Singh is ailing and did not contest the last elections. 


Also read: ‘Mamata a cocktail of adharmis’ — BJP brings Delhi Twitter warriors to Bengal for campaign


‘Nothing improper in our appointments’

The former IPS officers that ThePrint spoke to insisted that there was nothing wrong in their political careers. 

“I retired in 2002 and was offered a ticket by Mamata Banerjee in 2011. I joined politics to work for the people, especially for tribes and backward class people,” Biswas told The Print. “There was a cooling off period of at least 10 years between the end of my services as a bureaucrat and my stint in politics. I think there should be a cooling period between retirement and entry to politics for any willing bureaucrat.” 

Biswas, however, did flag the recent inductions of IPS officers as being improper. 

“If the cooling off period does not happen, it looks like one’s tenure as an officer is compromised. The recent joining of an IPS officer is one of the sort. He resigned and joined the party,” Biswas said. “We had also seen that our MEA minister joined politics immediately after retirement. These political appointments do not look fair.” 

Raachpal Singh, now the MLA from Hooghly’s Tarakeswar, echoed the view. “I too feel that there should be a cooling off period for bureaucrats who want to join politics,” the 77-year-old said.

“I worked for Didi and headed her security team in Bengal in 2009, because I believed in her as a leader. I never wanted a ticket. In fact, this time if she wants me to contest, I will. But if she does not, I will retire.”

Speaking to The Print, Satyajit Banerjee also saw nothing wrong in him joining the Trinamool. “I joined Trinamool months after my retirement,” he said. “I joined the party as an individual and it is about my ideological belief. I don’t think anyone can have anything to comment on that.” 

He also questioned Modi’s Nandigram remarks. “I am surprised to see that the national leaders who run the country speak in this manner,” he said. “They all know that officers work under a command. The incident, that he referred to, happened in a district where I was sent as part of a police arrangement of reinforcement. The court will take a call on my performances as an officer.” 

Humayun Kabir also told ThePrint that he joined the TMC for ideological reasons.  “I have joined Didi to save Bengal from the outsiders party. We have faith in her leadership,” he said.  

TMC leaders defended the appointments on the grounds that the chief minister is impartial, in that she also appoints IPS officers not known to be close to her.  

“Didi disliked Joardar a lot because there were allegations of corruption against him. In fact, he was part of a group of officers, who assaulted Didi during a movement in south Kolkata during the Left rule,” a TMC MLA said on the condition of anonymity. “But he was inducted in the party later. Didi does not hold a grudge against officers.” 

Mamata operates through police: BJP

The BJP alleges that the inductions reflect the chief minister’s working style, claiming she operates through police machinery as her party is not regimented. 

“Mamata Banerjee runs her administration by intimidating and treating senior officers. She draws her power from the police,” BJP’s national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya. “The officers, who can be easily compromised, are always in her coterie.” 

Vijayvargiya even termed the recent reshuffle of 24 IPS officers, including three commissioners of police, as part of her ‘election preparation’. 

“We know the officers she brought now would work for her during the election. We will file a complaint with the Election commission seeking their removal,” he said.


Also read: Why talks of a ‘secular front’ against BJP & Trinamool have hit a wall in Bengal


 

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1 COMMENT

  1. Mr. Humayun Kabir joins TMC just 12 days after quitting his IPS job. But TMC top brass and Ms. Mohua Moitra have no issues with it.
    However, when Mr. Ranjan Gogoi, the ex-CJI, joins the Rajya Sabha post-retirement it is unacceptable to Ms. Moitra and her party. Heights of hypocrisy!!!

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