The BJP and Trinamool Congress are locked in a zero-sum game with the CBI’s controversially timed probe into the Saradha chit fund scam
For centuries the region of Bengal has played a significant role in the history of the India. While Kolkata was the capital of British India for well over a hundred years, before that honour went back to Delhi in 1911, the city also remained the undisputed cultural capital of the subcontinent until after Independence. With Kolkata also being the hotbed of the Indian Independence movement, developments in Bengal had often set the narrative for the rest of the country.
Now, seven decades after India gained its sovereignty, Kolkata has once again become a political battlefield that may go a long way in determining the future course of the nation.
By late last month, amidst the buildup to the coming general elections, West Bengal had already become something of a symbolic cradle of a national united opposition that has been shaping up slowly but steadily as a formidable political nemesis of the Bharatiya Janata Party. This was all thanks to Trinamool Congress boss and chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who organised in the state capital a United India Rally that was attended by leaders from well over a score of political parties across India.
However, certain developments over the past couple of weeks involving New Delhi and Kolkata have led to a flashpoint that has captured the attention of the entire nation.
Just the day before the Modi government presented what was supposed to be a people-pleasing interim budget, the first sparks went off in Kolkata when a group of officials from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) called in at the residence of Manik Majumdar, a long-time aide of Banerjee, to question him in connection with the multi-billion-rupee Saradha ponzi scam.
This irked the West Bengal Chief Minister. She alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was forcing his officers towards sending notices and “humiliating” opposition political leaders. However, she refrained from criticising the officials.
“I don’t blame the officers, because they are compelled to do that. I am told that Narendra Modi ji summons officers to his residence. He then tells them do something, do something to bring down the Opposition in the eyes of the people,” Banerjee said.
“These people only look after the household. They only carry out instructions… How can you send notices to even those who serve tea?” she asked.
The next day, with the announcement of Lok Sabha polls just a month away, Prime Minister Modi blasted Didi and her administration at a couple of rallies in West Bengal, predicting that Trinamool’s rule in Bengal was nearing its end.
In response, Didi fired back, saying: “He shouldn’t think about us. We have over two years left in office. First there will be a change in Delhi. Our first priority is to remove him from power. Whether our government will remain or not after two years, people of Bengal will decide”.
“The bell has tolled for him, his exit. His expiry date has come… He knows his exit is not far. But he is not mentally ready to go,” she stated.
Seeking to remind the public that during the nearly five years of Modi’s rule, people have been oppressed and tortured through agencies like the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate, Didi pointed out: “No opposition leader in the country is in peace. They are all surrounded by agencies, as the present regime in Delhi is behaving like Hitler and adopting fascist means to keep everybody mum.”
Pointing out that the BJP had no moral standing to raise a finger at other parties, the feisty Trinamool leader stated that nothing substantial would come out of the probes into the Saradha scam.
Generally, election rallies do see verbal spats between leaders from opposition parties, which cool off in no time – but this one was not one of them; far worse was to come soon enough.
By the morning of February 3, word had spread that the CBI was back again in Kolkata, looking this time for Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar – a 1989-batch IPS officer who was known to be close to Didi – for interrogation in connection with the Saradha and Rose valley ponzi scams. Sources close to the investigation revealed that he could be arrested for not responding to the CBI’s summons.
Kumar had headed a probe by the Special Investigation Team set up by Didi after the breakout of the scams in 2013, before the Supreme Court handed over the investigation to CBI the next year.
On the evening of the same day a group of five CBI officers turned up at Kumar’s Loudon Street residence, only to be stopped by city police personnel who also forcibly took them to a police station.
All of this had already infuriated Didi enough to go on a war-footing against the BJP-led Centre.
Pointing out that the CBI officers had come to Kumar’s residence without any search warrant, she told reports just outside the Commissioner’s house that the move was “a secret operation” done with “instructions from Narendra Modi and Amit Shah.”
“There is a constitutional break-down and they are trying to organise a coup to destabilise the state. They are trying to run a parallel administration,” she thundered, expressing indignance.
“I have come here because I have a constitutional and personal responsibility to give protection to my forces,” she said.
Then she stepped it up a notch higher.
“I will start a dharna (sit-in) at Dharamtala area to save institutions, constitution and the federal structure of the country. This is a satyagraha,” Didi declared.
Then war of words began between the BJP leadership and the Trinamool Congress, with both sides accusing the other of subverting the constitution of the country.
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh reasoned that there were “allegations of nexus between politicians and influential persons in the scam and the agency is probing the matter as per the direction of the Supreme Court”.
“The stand-off between the agency and the state police is not only unlawful and unfortunate but also poses a grave threat to the federal and political system,” he noted.
Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad also chimed in: “Why is she so distraught on arrest of an IPS officer? The total suspicious circumstances surrounding all this clearly indicates that the Commissioner knows a lot. Therefore he has to be saved,” he said.
Meanwhile, Banerjee termed her dharna as non-political but a protest against the anarchic moves of the Modi government.
“We are holding this demonstration under the ‘Save India’ banner, to protect the constitutional, democratic and social rights of people. We also want to ensure that people’s freedom of speech is protected and the officials of different state and central agencies can work impartially,” she explained.
This unprecedented state-Centre stand-off was brought to an end only by the Supreme Court after it passed a ruling that seemed to work for both sides. It ruled that Kumar should “make himself available” to the CBI and “faithfully cooperate with it at all times” even as it instructed that “no coercive steps including arrest shall be taken against the Commissioner of Police”.
With both the BJP and Trinamool Congress claiming moral victories with the apex court’s judgement, the standoff seemed to have ended – but the battle was far from over.
In the following days, sources from the CBI revealed that the agency was focusing on recovering data from five specific mobile phones and a laptop that were reportedly procured by the SIT team from the prime accused linked to the scam – these were “key evidence” connecting the scam to “influential persons” in West Bengal and beyond.
A few days later, another round of verbal battle began between the Centre and West Bengal. On February 9, Prime Minister Modi accused Didi of trying to save those involved in ponzi scheme scams, alleging that opposition parties were coming together to protect fraudsters, touts and criminals.
Launching a scathing attack on Banerjee, the Prime Minister wondered why she was so scared of the probe into the scam, and charged her with inviting leaders from all over the country against whom there are either serious allegations of graft or those who were trying to protect the “corrupt” and said none of the offenders will be spared.
“It has happened for the first time in the history of the nation that a Chief Minister sat in a dharna in support of those who looted thousands of poor people. She is trying to protect the looters and those who ruined the lives of the poor,” Modi said while addressing a public rally at Churabhandar in the state’s Jalpaiguri district.
In Kolkata, Banerjee minced no words in returning the fire, as she called Modi “master of corruption and arrogance”, and one “used to blaring out a bunch of lies”.
“The country has not seen any person as corrupt as Modi. From Rafale to the scheme of 59 minutes loans for MSMEs, to demonetisation, Jan Dhan — these are all scams. All the institutions have been destroyed.
“He is a master of corruption, arrogance and used to blaring out a bunch of lies. His standard is so below par, we cannot imagine it even. We respect the chair but not Maddy babu,” Banerjee said, distorting Modi’s name.
Describing the Centre’s plan to take action against five senior police officers who were involved in the face-off between the Kolkata Police and CBI officials as part of “campaign” before polls, Banerjee said the Centre cannot take action against them, as they were state officers.
Meanwhile, the CBI questioned the Kolkata Police Commissioner for eight hours in connection with the chit fund scam in the Meghalayan capital of Shillong – a neutral place, as per the Supreme Court’s orders.
The same day saw another unfortunate development that seemed to be symptomatic of just how ugly the war is between the BJP and Trinamool Congress.
On February 10, Trinamool MLA Satyajit Biswas was shot dead from point-blank range at night by a group of unidentified assailants. Four people, including BJP leader Mukul Roy, have been booked by police, and two arrests have been made so far.
Just before India First went to press, reports arrived that Didi will join fellow Chief Ministers Arvind Kejriwal (Delhi), N. Chandrababu Naidu (Andhra Pradesh) and other leaders to address a ‘Remove Dictatorship, Save Democracy Rally’ at Jantar Mantar in the national capital on February 13.
As the CBI investigations into the ponzi scheme scams run parallel to the opposition joining hands against the BJP, it will be a race against time between the ruling regime and opposition forces to prove their point to the people of the nation before the elections come calling.
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