West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee informed Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram well in advance that she would not be able to take part in the February 18 inauguration of the regional hub of the National Security Guard at Badu in North 24 Parganas district.
Her absence led to reports that she had deliberately given the function a miss.
Significantly, Ms. Banerjee is one of the Chief Ministers opposed to the Union government's plans to create the National Counter Terrorism Centre. On February 14, she wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, requesting that he withdraw the February 3 order to set up the NCTC.
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“Much as I would have liked to be with you on the occasion, some urgent pre-occupations will deprive me [of the opportunity] to participate in this programme,” Ms. Banerjee wrote to Mr. Chidambaram on February 13.
Noting that the programme had been postponed on earlier occasions, Ms. Banerjee requested him to go ahead with it. She said she was deputing Union Minister of State for Shipping Mukul Roy and West Minister Food and Supplies Minister Jyoti Priya Mallick, both of her Trinamool Congress, to the function.