By Sushil Kutty
Something always is happening with West Bengal Governors. There was Jagdeep Dhankar who is now Vice President and whose mimicry by a Trinamool Congress leader has immortalized Dhankar whether he likes it or not. Now, there’s Governor CV Ananda Bose. And, by gosh, Ananda Bose can be as chillingly fiery like the Bose whose surname he sports. Governor Bose Friday gave a dressing down to — of all the VVIPs in Kolkata — Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and he continues to inhale and exhale.
Point is, if anybody can shut out the noise, it is the West Bengal Chief Minister who broke her leg but never her spirit. That was how many years ago? But we are talking of as recent as January 5, when Governor Bose took Mamata and her government to task for allowing a team of Enforcement Directorate sleuths to get almost lynched by a mob allegedly instigated by a Trinamool Congress politician with the most easily giveaway name of Sheikh Shahjahan.
Mind you, people with such names are special in West Bengal. They can get away with anything short of murder. On January 5, Shahjahan’s cronies numbering 800-1000 committed something “alarming, deplorable and ghastly”. Of course, Governor Bose lost his cool. “Bengal isn’t a banana republic,” he told Mamata Banerjee. “Bengal isn’t a banana republic,” asking her to stop the “barbarism and vandalism”.
So, Mamata Banerjee is transfixed like a rabbit in the glare of a car headlight and Mamata is not used to such unexpected bonhomie. She has also never been told to her face that the “government performs its basic duties” or else, “the Constitution of India will take its course”.
It was an ultimatum. “It is a ghastly incident. It is alarming and deplorable. It is the duty of a civilised government to stop barbarism and vandalism in a democracy. If a govt fails in its basic duty, then the Constitution of India will take its course. I reserve all my constitutional options for appropriate action. This pre-election violence should find an early end, and this is the beginning of that end,” Governor Ananda Bose read out the riot act.
“Bengal is not a banana republic” wasn’t good listening. More so, when the Congress jumped in and asked for President’s rule in West Bengal. The Congress’s Adhir Ranjan Chowdhary reiterated the demand Saturday morning. Adhir Ranjan can be a pest as Mamata Banerjee would very well know. Shahjahan’s supporters aren’t any different. Such mobs always vandalise vehicles, and attack imaginary enemies.
That being said, the story bifurcates. One, ED officials are facing attacks here, there and everywhere. It has to do with the Modi government’s alleged indiscriminate “misuse” of central investigation agencies to corner opposition leaders to cooperate with the BJP to bring down governments of opposition-ruled states.
Two, West Bengal has been a favourite hunting ground for the ED and the CBI. And the Trinamool Congress a favourite target. Apparently, Sheikh Shahjahan is a close aide of Bengal minister Jyotipriyo Mullick who in turn is close confidante of Mamata Banerjee. Such full circles interest the Enforcement Directorate, therefore, the rising tensions.
Assaults on ED/CBI/CRPF teams, also on journalists of various media, are getting common. Captive media never complain because they have their own axes and ‘axis’ to grind and please. Mamata Banerjee’s reign has been an interesting study in enduring violence. Especially election-time violence. The TMC revels in election-related violence, whether panchayat, urban bodies’, assembly or the Lok Sabha elections. Mamata Banerjee’s TMC never fails journalists and photo-journalists.
The Trinamool says the January 5 violence was the handiwork of the security apparatus stringing along with the ED team and that the ED should have informed the local police that they were coming. But, that is crazy. Also how, and why for? The ED’s first instinct is to guard its secrecy; the target should be surprised like the deer caught in the glare of the headlight. Why warn the target that the ED was coming? The target will run, hide or huddle.
The simple fact is, the Mamata police failed. The mob was allowed a free run. The state police rarely acts against the supporters of the TMC But the Modi – Shah combine is equally guilty of using the ED and the CBI only against the opposition leaders and workers. The Modi-Shah juggernaut will make all the noises except the right ones. Winning elections is all that counts. (IPA Service)
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