Mamata Banerjee’s ‘Enemy’ Is Now CBI, Not CPI

The visit of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Special Director Rakesh Asthana to Kolkata earlier this week triggered a flutter in political circles and alarm within the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC). Asthana was in Kolkata to fast track the probes into the Saradha and other chit fund scams as well as the Narada sting operation (watch this video). Top leaders of the Trinamool Congress are the prime accused in all these cases.

Asthana, during his two-day visit to Kolkata, issued strict instructions to the premier investigating agency’s sleuths in the city to pull up their socks and complete the investigations within the next couple of months. He was reportedly dissatisfied with the tardy pace of investigation in the Narada case, and wanted the probe to be completed soon. The CBI Special Director also asked his juniors in Kolkata to prepare fool-proof chargesheets that can withstand judicial scrutiny and lead to punishment of the guilty in the scams.

The Trinamool Congress, whose seven-year rule has been riddled with scams (read this report), reacted along predictable lines with its chief spokesperson and Education Minister Partha Chatterjee alleging that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was using the CBI to browbeat the Trinamool. “It (Asthana’s visit) is politically motivated to haunt TMC in the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections,” he said. Chatterjee was right: Asthana’s visit to Kolkata and the instructions he left on completing the probe soon has sent alarm bells ringing within the TMC and will haunt the party leadership for some time to come.

But the visit has injected a fresh dose of enthusiasm and energy within the state BJP, whose leaders and workers were dismayed at the slow pace of progress of the CBI probes into the scams. The general feeling within the BJP’s Bengal unit was that Banerjee had reached an understanding with the central leadership of the party (BJP) and that was why the CBI was dragging its feet. Not only the CBI, it was felt that even the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) were going slow with their investigations into cases of corruption and financial impropriety against some Trinamool leaders. There were strong rumours within the BJP Bengal unit that Mamata Banerjee had got Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to ask the investigating agencies under their ministries to apply the brakes on the probes they were conducting.

Now, Asthana’s visit aimed at putting the cases on the fast track has enthused the BJP. “We have been demanding this for some time now. The probes into these scams that have benefited top Trinamool leaders should be concluded early so that the guilty can be sentenced. Not only these scams, the central investigating agencies should also initiate probes into other corruption cases against Trinamool leaders as well. All of them have amassed huge properties with ill-gotten money and they need to be booked. Mamata Banerjee’s own family members are also corrupt and own many properties which are in their names or are benami,” said BJP state president Dilip Ghosh.

Many senior most leaders of the Trinamool are accused of having facilitated the chit fund scams. In fact, Trinamool MPs Sudip Bandopadhyay and Tapas Paul, along with others, were arrested and were in prison (they are out on bail now) in the Rose Valley scam while Madan Mitra (the former transport minister) and Kunal Ghosh (Trinamool MP) were arrested for their involvement in the Saradha scam. The scams had severely dented Mamata Banerjee’s image and it was widely expected that the probes would ensnare key functionaries of the party.

The Narada sting operation came as another big blow for the Trinamool and almost the entire top leadership of the party was seen accepting money from people fronting for a fictitious company in exchange for favours. Urban Development Minister and close Banerjee aide Firhad Hakim, Trinamool Lok Sabha MPs Saugata Roy, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Aparupa Poddar and Prasun Banerjee, former MP Sultan Ahmed (he passed away in September last), State Panchayat Minister Subrata Mukherjee, Transport Minister Suvendu Adhikari, Kolkata Mayor Sovan Chatterjee, Deputy Mayor Iqbal Ahmed, former Trinamool general secretary Mukul Roy (he is now in the BJP) and IPS officer H M S Mirza (known to be close to top Trinamool leaders) purportedly featured in the video accepting cash or asking the sting operators to deposit the cash with their aides.

Apart from these leaders, the BJP has also pointed fingers at Mamata Banerjee’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee and her brothers for allegedly amassing huge assets. “We demand a probe into the properties in the names of Mamata Banerjee’s nephew and brothers. Abhishek Banerjee’s own new palatial house would have cost a fortune. Her (Mamata’s) brothers also have many properties in their names. Even some district leaders who are very close to Mamata Banerjee have amassed huge properties. We want a thorough probe into the corruption indulged in by Trinamool leaders so that they are exposed and punished. Trinamool is the most corrupt party,” said Dilip Ghosh.

Though Trinamool’s Chatterjee put up a brave front and said, “attempts to browbeat the Trinamool Congress will not work”, senior party leaders admit that the renewed push for probes into the scams has rattled the party. A senior minister who did not want to be named said that party supremo Mamata Banerjee held discussions with her close aides on Thursday to discuss the possible fallout of the CBI probes. Mamata Banerjee is learnt to have fumed against what she feels is the Union government’s move to corner her before the 2019 polls. She reportedly told her senior most party colleagues to prepare the grounds for pre-emptive legal action if the CBI or other investigative agencies move to chargesheet or arrest her party leaders. The senior minister said that apart from the party’s own legal cell, Mamata Banerjee will also take the help of legal luminaries like Kapil Sibal in the Congress to counter the CBI as she feels her party leaders would be booked in corruption cases. She reportedly said at Thursday’s discussions that she would speak to Sibal and others and request them to be prepared for pre-emptive legal action, including petitioning the Supreme Court and moving anticipatory bail petitions before it.

Mamata Banerjee has also asked her party colleagues to plan to fight the CBI probe at the political level. “She will wait for some time and see which way the CBI probes are moving. If she feels the CBI is moving towards arresting her party leaders, she will take the fight to the people and launch a public campaign all over the state to tell the people that the CBI’s moves are politically motivated. She is confident that the people of Bengal will believe her. After all, the scams and all the allegations levelled against her could do no harm in the last Assembly polls in 2016,” said a senior minister.

The BJP obliquely concedes that it would be difficult to counter Mamata Banerjee’s ‘clean’ image and, thus, wants the alleged corruption of her family members to be exposed through probes conducted by central agencies. “Mamata Banerjee’s Achilles heel is her nephew and brothers. A thorough probe into their assets and benami properties would not only expose them, but also Mamata Banerjee. If her family members are indicted, her image will be tarnished permanently,” said a senior BJP leader who was the president of the state’s party unit.

It is, however, too early to predict which way the CBI probes will move and if any more Trinamool leaders will fall into the agency’s net. As of now, it is a wait-and-watch policy not only for the Trinamool Congress, but also for the BJP.