New Delhi: In an unusual confrontation, the Ministry of External affairs directly responded to a senior Trinamool Congress leader on Twitter and claimed that West Bengal’s lack of confirmation of quarantine facilities had left it out in the cold in the ongoing repatriation mission of stranded Indians abroad.The Centre and the West Bengal government have already been at loggerheads over special trains for migrant workers. Now, the strife has spilled over to operation Vande Bharat, which is slated to bring back thousands of Indians on paid commercial, non-scheduled flights from around the world. These are people who had been unable to return due to snapping of air transport links as countries shut down their borders to stop the spread of COVID-19 pandemic.MEA does not discriminate between states. GOI’s Vande Bharat Mission is for all stranded Indians, including those from West Bengal. Over 3700 of them have registered for repatriation from different parts of the world. (1/2)@MoCA_GoI @HomeSecretaryWB https://t.co/CEzU0rCAnM— Anurag Srivastava (@MEAIndia) May 14, 2020MEA does not discriminate between states. GOI’s Vande Bharat Mission is for all stranded Indians, including those from West Bengal. Over 3700 of them have registered for repatriation from different parts of the world. (1/2)@MoCA_GoI @HomeSecretaryWB https://t.co/CEzU0rCAnM— Anurag Srivastava (@MEAIndia) May 14, 2020On Thursday evening, West Bengal education minister and Trinamool Congress general secretary Partha Chatterjee tweeted to complain that no cities in West Bengal had been made part of repatriation flights in the first two weeks of operation Vande Bharat. He had also used the hashtag ‘MithyebadiBJP’, which translates to ‘LiarBJP’ in Bengali.While Chatterjee had questioned MEA, he had not tagged the ministry’s official account which is operated by the head of the external publicity division.Is the MEA asking us to believe that there are enough people to come from Georgia to Gujrat but none want to come to Kolkata ?Also, there are enough people to come back to Bihar from Kyrgyzstan but not enough to bring back to Bengal??Stop this injustice !!!#MithyebadiBJP pic.twitter.com/NbpEFWw646— Partha Chatterjee (@itspcofficial) May 14, 2020However, a few hours after he tweeted, the MEA spokesperson, Anurag Srivastava, unusually, addressed this question directly on Twitter. It is not the norm for a Union ministry spokesperson to address allegations by political parties directly.Stating that MEA does “not discriminate” between states, Srivastava said that more than 3,700 Indians from West Bengal have registered for repatriation to the state from foreign countries.However, in a follow-up tweet, he implied that the West Bengal state government had not given the green signal by informing the ministry about quarantine facilities. As per the Central government’s standard operation procedure, all travellers on repatriation flights have to undergo mandatory institutional quarantine, arranged for by state governments, for 14 days.Also read: In Bengal, ‘BJP Versus Mamata’ Politics Takes Centre Stage in Coronavirus FightIncidentally, earlier on Thursday, sources in the ministry had said in answer to a question on the absence of Kolkata in the list of domestic destinations, that the operation was going on in a phased manner and more cities would be added in the future.Chatterjee retorted that his state would be welcome its people with “open arms”. He also pivoted to ask why the special flights could not be used inside the country to allow migrant workers to reach their homes.Bengal will welcome its people from any part of the world with open arms & since Hon’ble PM is talking about ‘Vocal for Local’, why can’t we have our poor migrant brothers & sisters reach their homes in these special flights instead of walking barefoot for thousands of kms ? https://t.co/lfdqno2BDG— Partha Chatterjee (@itspcofficial) May 14, 2020Earlier this week, Times of India had reported that West Bengal has requisitioned 549 rooms in luxury hotels for paid quarantine for repatriated Indians. However, MEA officials have said that there had not been any official communication from Kolkata.On Friday, the West Bengal government’s home department released copies of two letters to the central government. The first one, dated May 8, was the state chief secretary’s letter to the Union home secretary stating that institutional quarantine facilities have been set up and demanding the details of passengers reaching Kolkata.The second letter, dated May 11, was addressed to the Ministry of External Affairs with the list of quarantine centres, both in hotels and government facilities. As per the letter, West Bengal government had identified quarantine facilities for 1,400 persons.GOWB keen to welcome back our people stranded in different countries and has long back communicated its agreement as well as quarantine arrangements details etc to GOI for special international inbound journeys. Letters attached. Bengal awaits flights. pic.twitter.com/D6k4eNNA9k— HOME DEPARTMENT – GOVT. OF WEST BENGAL (@HomeBengal) May 15, 2020The latest salvo was from the MEA spokesperson on Friday evening, which welcomed “willingness” of West Bengal government to accept returnees. “Request early confirmation of modalities to be followed upon arrival of passengers at Kolkata Airport,” he tweeted.Welcome willingness of GOWB to accept returnees from abroad, who are from West Bengal. Request early confirmation of modalities to be followed upon arrival of passengers at Kolkata Airport.@MoCA @HomeSecretaryWB https://t.co/91KK1MfYBz— Anurag Srivastava (@MEAIndia) May 15, 2020Note: The article has been updated with latest tweets by West Bengal’s home department and MEA spokesperson on Friday.