IPS Officer Bushra Transferred Over Saying “InshaAllah”
West Bengal cadre IPS officer Ms. Bushra Bano faced backlash from a Hindutva organization after using Urdu and Arabic greetings in a video. Following this, she was transferred from her post on Monday, just days after a complaint was filed against her.
The 2021 batch officer had been serving as Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) in Kharagpur, Medinipur. She has been moved from that post and transferred to the position of Deputy Commandant of the State Armed Police.
On September 13, a video of Ms. Bushra Bano was posted on social media in which she shared the story of her civil service exam preparation and success to encourage aspiring administrative officers.
An Islamophobic organization called “Hindu Legal Fund” strongly objected to the words “Assalamu Alaikum,” “InshaAllah” and “JazakAllah” used by Ms. Bushra Bano in the video, and filed a written complaint with West Bengal’s Home Secretary.
The organization claimed that a responsible government official representing the state should maintain religious neutrality in any public or social media statement. According to them, instead of any religious greeting, national phrases such as “Jai Hind” or “Vande Mataram” should have been used.
The complainant organization wrote on social media platform X, formerly Twitter, that she began the video with Assalamu Alaikum, used InshaAllah in the middle, and ended with JazakAllah, but did not use “Vande Mataram” or “Jai Hind” anywhere. They also demanded an investigation into the matter. Since this incident, a new debate has emerged over whether civil service officers should be obligated to use specific national or religious words in personal or public speech.
IPS Officer Ms. Bushra Bano’s Journey to Success
In the video, Ms. Bushra Bano mainly spoke about her struggles and academic journey. Born in Kannauj district of Uttar Pradesh, she earned a PhD in Management Studies from Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) and qualified the NET exam for a Junior Research Fellowship (JRF). She later worked as an assistant professor at a university in Saudi Arabia, before returning to India to begin preparing for the UPSC exam.
She gratefully recalled the contribution of AMU’s Residential Coaching Academy to her success, which had provided her with study materials, library facilities and test series.
In 2018, Ms. Bushra secured rank 277 in the UPSC exam and got an opportunity in the Indian Railway Traffic Service, but she was unable to join that job at the time as she had just given birth to her second child. The following year, in 2019, she took the exam again and was selected for her dream service, the Indian Police Service (IPS), with rank 234.
Further Reshuffling in Police Administration
Ms. Bushra Bano, a 2021 batch IPS officer, was inducted into the West Bengal cadre. She began her career as Assistant Superintendent of Police in the Hooghly Rural area and was promoted to Additional Superintendent of Police in June this year.
In a new announcement by the state government, alongside Ms. Bushra Bano’s transfer, Mr. Partha Ghosh has been transferred as the new Additional Superintendent of Police in Kharagpur, and Mr. Shubhendu Mondal has been transferred as Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police in the Chandannagar Police Commissionerate.
