In a decision to neutralise the pressure between the Mamata Banerjee government and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the Supreme Court walked the middle path by ordering Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar to make himself “available” for probe by the agency, which has in turn been barred from taking any coercive steps against the senior police officer, including his arrest. The CBI was pressing for his arrest which court has refused clearly as for appearing before CBI is concerned, he should do that. Court has asked for evidence against the Commissioner, which they couldn’t produce. Well, the court rightly asked him to cooperate in the investigation.

“One needs to notice that the BJP is trying hard to gain some seats in West Bengal. However, BJP is unlikely to win Bengal in near future. The reason lies in the mindset of the people of West Bengal that has been conditioned for communism over three decades of Communist rules followed by almost a decade of the ultra-communist rule of Trinamool Congress.”

However, people want to know why CBI and BJP government waited for four long years? Why is CBI being used now before elections? Is this because a drama was to be enacted in Bengal before the election? Amit Shah and Modi forgot that Didi will leave them behind in all sorts of Drama and that is what exactly happened; she arrested the CBI officers and sat on strike in protest. The CBI came with an intention to arrest Bengal police officer and landed in jail. By doing this protest, Mamata has flagged her supremacy; all the Opposition leaders supported her. It’s high time the BJP needs to realise that making Mamata powerless is not so easy. To avoid trouble or mud-slinging, the court went to the extra length of scheduling the meeting between Kumar and the CBI at “neutral” Shillong and not anywhere in West Bengal, least of all in politically-charged Kolkata, where Banerjee was holding a dharna claiming the attempt to arrest of Kumar on the night of January 3 as an instance of high-handedness by the Narendra Modi government. The case was taken up on a priority basis by the court. The CBI found that some of the documents handed over to the CBI by Kumar were doctored. The CBI summoned him, but he did not come. The cell phone of Sudipto Sen (main accused in Saradha scam) was returned to him by the SIT. Call records were incomplete and discrepancies were seen in the number of the calls. Information on who called and to whom, are missing. The call records were doctored. The CBI has also filed a contempt petition. The charges made in it are “far more serious”. Whenever a case is handed over to the CBI, it is always transferred after the local police did some initial investigation. In 90 per cent of these cases, the local police had handled the investigation badly and the CBI has never tried to prosecute the local investigating officers ahead of prosecuting the main offense. Probably, this is the first time. If this precedent is accepted, any police officer can arrest his predecessor for negligence or malice in half investigated cases handed over to successors. Whatever may be the justification, why raid on a Sunday that too at odd hours with dozen police officers? Doesn’t the same standard apply to others? How do you ill-treat a government employee? Political drama has reached new heights! The BJP is doing all so it can take over West Bengal. The CBI officials came in without papers which is not permissible. The CBI must follow federal guidelines. In the chit fund case, the CBI is investigating after the Supreme Court has transferred the case to the CBI. The CBI after having tried many a times to obtain some documents and seek clarifications on the earlier investigation from members of the SIT is attempting to meet the concerned State officers in person.

So far, Mamata Banerjee and all those concerned people with this case were co-operating, then why all of a sudden things went wrong? One needs to notice that the BJP is trying hard to gain some seats in West Bengal. However, BJP is unlikely to win Bengal in near future. The reason lies in the mindset of the people of West Bengal that has been conditioned for communism over three decades of Communist rules followed by almost a decade of the ultra-communist rule of Trinamool Congress. The long years of Communist thinking have transformed the mentality of the people of Bengal to such an extent that they are proud to be what they are. I remember, before 2014, there was nothing called BJP in the politics of West Bengal. It was considered to be a non-Bengali party and that had the support of only non-Bengalis living in Bengal. It’s all changed. Although, I must say that the wind hasn’t yet turned in favour of the BJP. The Saradha and Narada cases were the main weapons of the BJP against the incumbent government. The BJP will win quite a good number of Lok Sabha seats in the 2019 general election (mostly from urban areas, can’t say about rural Bengal), but the party can never make it to the power.

Majority of the people cited the minority appeasement by TMC as the main reason for derogatory law and order situation in WB. However, what can a party do where nearly 30 per cent are Muslims? I do not consider this as an appeasement, just fallacy of democracy. In a democracy, the number is the ultimate thing. Can we say all the US government are White, English Speaking, and Christian appeaser? There are 70 per cent White, English Speaking, Christians and obviously, the policies have to be aligned with their will, no matter how bad it is. However, in WB, Muslim growth is not because of State politics, rather it is Indian politics. During partition, no Hindu Bengali wanted to exchange Hindu dominated (70 per cent) Khulna and Jessore, the heartland of Jute production (then the largest industry) with Muslim dominated Murshidabad, Malda, and Dinajpur. It was done completely to create a bridge to North East India. So it is disheartening to see BJP’s comment about minority appeasement and communistic mindset of Bengal people and government. Forgetting that, Bengal had to take all the damage to ensure India’s security and integrity.

Bengali population did not take it by choice, it is rather forced upon. Maybe this is the reason that the communists ruled this state for so long.

Saradha scam involves big political names including Himanta Biswa Sarma, Mukul Roy, etc. Both were on the CBI radar until they joined BJP and soon after their inclusion into BJP, fuss around their involvement in scam got sidelined automatically. If PM Modi wanted to take action against the scamsters, he shouldn’t have welcomed those corrupt leaders into the team. This brings BJP’s credibility in fighting against the corruption under question! If PM can shelter its own corrupt leaders, then, Mamata’s dharna to ‘save the democracy’ should not be translated wrong. I have witnessed many Bengalis who have no malignation for the Muslims; Bengal is one state where instances of communal violence are reported the least.

Mamata Banerjee sent the Communists home after 34 years by positioning herself as Lefter-than the Left. There is an entire generation of Bengalis who have grown up in a Leftist school of thought. Forget shifting the Bengali mind to the Right; it is a huge task, if not an impossible one to attract the Bengali voter to policies of a Centre-of-Left party like the Congress. They are not fighting against any party there; they are fighting against an ideology those generations of Bengalis have grown up with. Let’s see How Mamata can stop BJP in West Bengal and How Modi will create space for its party in such adverse conditions!

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