Earlier, an Election Commission directive had asked the states not to display portraits or photographs other than those of Mahatma Gandhi, the President of India and the Governor in government offices. The directive sent Writers’ Buildings staff in a tizzy after the chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee flared up and declared that he was not about to heed the directives and remove portraits of Rabindranath Tagore and Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose among other national heroes. The CM felt that the directive was absurd. He had asked the state’s chief secretary to seek a clarification from the Election Commission forthwith.

The Election Commission late on Wednesday evening clarified that its directive did not apply to pictures of prominent historical personalities, national leaders and poets of days gone by. The Commission, however, maintained that photographs of present leaders, including the Prime Minister, Chief Ministers, ministers and other political personalities, cannot be displayed in government offices. The exercise will be in force till the Lok Sabha elections are over and done with.

In a bid to explain its directive the Commission let it be known through the state’s chief electoral officer Debashis Sen that the intention behind the earlier order was that pictures or photographs of political personalities, who could influence the electorate and who are active in public life and may be contesting the Lok Sabha elections, should not be displayed. Sen clarified that the Election Commission had no intention of disrespecting national heroes. Only pictures of politicians and ministers of the day would not be allowed in government offices.

The Bengal chief minister had said that none of his photographs were in his chamber but he had overlooked the fact that there were a string of photographs of his attending various functions, some along with his cabinet colleagues, in a photo gallery on the long corridor of Writers’ Buildings which snakes past his chamber. Yesterday these photographs were hastily removed.

However, the corridor of Writers’ Buildings, dating back to the British colonial era, is also adorned with a bust of former chief minister of Bengal Bidhan Chandra Roy and portraits of Rabindranath Tagore, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Chittaranjan Das, and revolutionaries Binay, Badal and Dinesh. These are to stay.