He can't very well tell journalists what to write, so West Bengal CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharya is now saying what they shouldn’t. After several skirmishes between him and the Press, he has taken it upon himself to teach journalists ‘‘how to conduct themselves inside Secretariat’’ and to ‘‘play the game according to rules’’.The latest incident occurred on Friday when some journalists came to the Secretariat to cover the impact of a half-day, pen-down strike called by nine staff bodies over slashing of the Puja bonus. The CPI(M)-backed coordination committee members manhandled a group of mediamen and broke the camera of at least one photographer. When journalists brought this to Bhattacharya’s notice, the CM expressed regrets but demanded: ‘‘Why do you want to write and take photos of a small minority in the Secretariat while the majority is doing normal work?’’ According to him, this was an example of journalists ‘‘not playing by the rules and overstepping their limits’’.Incidentally, there was no trouble while reporters and photographers were doing the rounds of departments where normal work was on. It was only when they went to the branches of the Secretariat, including Agriculture, Budget and Taxation, where the pen-down strike could be seen that the trouble started.Asked if this wasn’t a part of the complete picture, he said: ‘‘No, you can’t do that.’’ He added that the accreditation card given to journalists ‘‘is for entering the Secretariat. It does not give them free access to departments.One has to have an invitation from the departmental head.’’But a few days ago, even that hadn’t prevented some journalists from being at the receiving end of Bhattacharya’s ire. The occasion was a function at the administrative training institute where the Press was ‘‘officially invited’’ by the director. Halfway through, the CM, also an invitee, ordered the journalists out. He later sought to explain that he wanted to make a critical analysis of government workers and didn’t want the Press listening in.Before that, during the infant death controversy at B.C. Roy Memorial Hospital, the government had tried to clamp down on the access of media to sources of information in the hospital by deploying a police battalion outside. It was asked to restrict the movement of journalists as well.In fact, Bhattacharya has had a love-hate relationship with the Press for long, dating back to the time when he was not chief minister. His hand was seen in the dismantling of the original Press Corner at Writers’ Buildings in January 1993 and it was believed he was peeved because of their ‘‘preference’’ for Mamata Banerjee.Later, when he was deputy chief minister, members of the coordination committee in a department under his control — Information and Cultural Affairs — had assaulted journalists. When the latter complained, Bhattacharya set up a committee that had let the assaulters go scotfree but suggested a ‘Press Code’ for reporters covering Writers’ Buildings. Journalists had objected, putting Bhattacharya on the backfoot.However, the CM seems to have revived the proposal again, seeking proposals from the media to formulate a code of conduct for their movement in government offices. ‘‘In other states also, journalists are not allowed to enter any government office whenever they want,’’ he said.
