The Trinamool Congress has voiced its unhappiness that the Ministry of External Affairs had rejected an Australian diplomatic request to meet three Bengal Ministers. Senior party leaders said that the issue would be taken up with the MEA and would be brought up in Parliament as well. However, the MEA, on its part, said that it had conveyed its “no objection to Australian Deputy High Commissioner to meeting West Bengal Government officials at the appropriate level”.
Yesterday, Trinamool Rajya Sabha MPs Saket Gokhale and Sagarika Ghose had accused the BJP-led NDA Government of not giving permission to the Australian deputy envoy Nicholas McCaffrey to meet the Ministers in the West Bengal Government. They said that the MEA had instead suggested that the diplomat could meet two Trinamool MPs and two from the state BJP. “This is federal terrorism,” Gokhale said, adding, “The issue will be discussed with other I.N.D.I.A. parties and raised in Parliament.”
The names recommended by the MEA were Trinamool Congress MPs Derek O’Brien and Jawhar Sircar and BJP’s Sukanta Majumdar and Dilip Ghosh.
Gokhale and Ghose also alleged that the Centre was creating hindrances in West Bengal’s quest for foreign investment.
McCaffrey had sought the meetings ahead of his planned visit to West Bengal.
Gokhale said the Oceania division of the Ministry of External Affairs recommended against McCaffrey meeting West Bengal Industry and Commerce Minister Shashi Panja, IT Minister Babul Supriyo, and Agriculture Minister Sovandeb Chattopadhyay.
“The Government of West Bengal received communication from the Australian High Commission that the Deputy High Commissioner would be visiting West Bengal and he had sought meetings with three Ministers in the Government of West Bengal,” Gokhale said.
Following this, a communication came from the Oceania division of the Ministry of External Affairs that it does not recommend that the Australian Deputy High Commissioner meet up with the Ministers, he said. “What problem does the NDA Government have if a diplomat representing his country in India has a meeting with Cabinet Ministers in an Indian State?” he asked.
However, retired diplomats said a Deputy High Commissioner or a Deputy Chief of a foreign mission was junior to Ministers in State Governments and that is why the meetings sought by the diplomat were not in sync with laid down norms.
Similar yardsticks are followed for Indian diplomats in Australia as well, they explained.
When asked about the issue, a spokesperson for the Australian High Commission did not comment on it but said Australia and India are close friends with strong strategic, economic and community ties.
“Australian diplomats travel regularly across India to continue strengthening the political, business, cultural and sporting linkages between our two countries,” the official said.
Ghose also targeted the Centre on the matter and said the manner in which the meetings were denied puts a question mark on the federal structure of the country. “It is extremely shocking and autocratic to send out a recommendation through the Ministry of External Affairs,” she said. “This is an assault on the federal structure,” she alleged.
A senior Trinamool leader said that according to the email that reached the State Government’s protocol division, Abhishek Bahuguna, section officer (Oceania division), MEA, had written that the Ministry had “no objection from political angle” in the Deputy High Commissioner meeting the four (Derek O’Brien, Jawhar Sircar, Sukanta Majumdar and Dilip Ghosh), but it “does not recommend following meetings requested by the Australian side” naming the three Ministers.
O’Brien took umbrage, saying: “Panja handles the Industry portfolio, Supriyo is the State Information Technology Minister, and Chattopadhyay handles the Agriculture department. They are senior Cabinet Ministers in Bengal. This is unfathomable.”
“The MEA seems to have a double face when it comes to foreign relations of the country and States of India…. This has happened with Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, where, on several occasions, she has been invited to a foreign country to address a business summit or for a programme and the MEA has refused to give protocol clearance,” Gokhale said.
His Rajya Sabha colleague, Sagarika Ghose, said: “Banerjee was stopped three times from travelling abroad. This is a fundamental assault on the federal structure. The mandate is not for autocracy anymore.”
