Last evening, CBI virtually outwitted the entire legal team of the TMC. After a swift move in the late evening, the investigative agency succeeded to send those four they arrested yesterday morning to jail as the high court stayed the bail granted to them by the lower court. Among the four are two ministers of Mamata Banerjee’s cabinet: Firhad Hakim, the most important Muslim face of TMC, and Subrata Mukherjee, the senior-most minister. The case will be heard by the high court again on Wednesday.
It is a serious loss of face for the state government, but the TMC can fight it out by labelling it as ‘political vendetta’. After all, they have huge support of the people of Bengal as evident from their vote-share (48%). But what is worrying the TMC leadership is the CBI’s appeal to transfer the case out of the state. Yesterday’s gathering of the TMC supporters, who pelted stones and bricks at CBI office premises, may strengthen the CBI’s position. If it is granted, CBI will have further leeway in dealing with the accused.
Interestingly, while Mamata Banerjee staged dharna inside the CBI office yesterday, triggering a huge gathering outside that turned unruly at times, her nephew Abhishek Banerjee asked the supporters to ‘abide by the law & refrain from any activity that violates lockdown norms for the sake of the larger interest of Bengal and its people’. In a tweet, he further stated, “We have utmost faith in the judiciary & the battle will be fought legally.”
The TMC leaders are scheduled to meet to form a political strategy to deal with the situation. As such, the TMC leadership believes the arrests made during the COVID-19 wave in Bengal will further isolate the BJP from the people. Firhad Hakim has lamented that the CBI, with whom he claimed he had cooperated fully, has prevented him from serving the people of Kolkata as the chairman of Kolkata Corporation during the pandemic.
It is believed that apart from ongoing Sharada and Narada cases, CBI investigation about the smuggling of cattle and coal has reached a stage where the investigators may start moving against the ‘influential’ people. Though the investigating agencies like CBI or ED have not named Abhishek Banerjee, the top BJP leaders have claimed that Abhishek Banerjee is the ‘kingpin’ of those scams. It is known that by gherao or hooliganism, these investigations cannot be stopped. That is why, it is felt, Abhishek wants to follow a more pragmatic approach.
Meanwhile, BJP is trying to distance itself from the controversy regarding Narada arrests. But as Congress and CPI(M) too have criticised these arrests, the state leadership of the party feels, in the long run, it will help in polarising the votes between the pro-TMC and anti-TMC (i.e. BJP) camps.
(The author Diptendra Raychaudhuri is a senior journalist based in Kolkata. He has a wide range of experience in covering West Bengal politics and has authored).