Mamata Banerjee Crossed The Line Once Again, This Time With An Outrageous Statement Before Top Indian And Foreign Judiciary

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is notorious for her often outrageous utterances, and the short shrift she gives to propriety and decorum.

And by often throwing all civility and correctness to the wind, she has crossed the red line many times.

She did so again during her address at the fourteenth annual convocation of the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences in Kolkata on Sunday (30 October).

With Chief Justice of India (CJI) Uday Umesh Lalit in attendance, she alleged that democracy in India is in peril and appealed to the judiciary to save the “federal structure of the country”. 

Banerjee said: “I request present and future leaders of judiciary to see to it that our federal structure remains intact. People are being unnecessarily harassed. All democratic powers are being seized by a section of the people. If this goes on, our country will move towards a presidential form (of governance). Where will democracy be then? Please save democracy”. 

The Bengal Chief Minister also said that “judiciary must save people from disaster and injustice”.

“The judiciary must hear people’s cries. Now, people are crying behind closed doors,” she added. But Banerjee did not stop there.

Addressing Chief Justice Lalit directly, she said: “I don’t know whether I can use this platform or not, but I must congratulate our present Chief Justice of India. He got only two months in office, but during these two months, we have seen what the judiciary is. People’s faith in the judiciary has been restored. I am not saying people had lost faith in the judiciary. But nowadays, the situation is going from worse to worst (sic)”. 

Banerjee’s thinly-veiled political speech in front of the country’s top judiciary has come in for strong condemnation from the legal fraternity.

“Making such a political speech and mouthing such outrageous claims about the country heading towards a presidential form of governance amounts to crossing a red line,” said a senior lawyer of the Calcutta High Court. 

“People in high posts should know how to maintain propriety and decorum. Mamata Banerjee insulted the post she holds by violating decorum in such a shamelessly blatant manner,” said a Supreme Court advocate. 

What has angered many is that the Bengal Chief Minister made those statements in the presence of the Chief Justice of Bangladesh, Hasan Foez Siddique, who was a guest at the convocation. 

“Mamata Banerjee would have been well aware that the Chief Justice of another country was present. But that did not stop her from levelling baseless political accusations, making scurrilous claims and then attempting to curry favour with the judiciary in front of the Bangladesh Chief Justice. She should have been restrained and desisted from speaking her mind on the country’s internal affairs in front of guests from another country,” said a member of the Calcutta High Court Bar Association. 

Another senior lawyer who practises both in the Calcutta High Court and the Supreme Court told Swarajya that Banerjee’s “open and audacious attempt to ingratiate herself” with Chief Justice Lalit deserves strong condemnation. 

“Her barefaced and apparently phoney praise of the CJI was disgraceful and made with very ulterior motives. It deserves to be condemned in the strongest possible terms. It was a flagrant attempt to curry favour with the country’s top judiciary,” he said. 

Banerjee had also lashed out at ‘trial by media’.

“Before a verdict is pronounced, media trial is on. The media cannot control the judiciary, they can only give their opinion. But they give their opinion and accuse anybody and abuse anybody,” she said. 

“Respect and izzat are integral to one’s character. Our only prestige is our respect, our izzat. Agar hamara izzat loot liya toh sab loot liya. The judiciary must look into this,” she had said. 

Banerjee was obviously referring to the adverse media coverage over central agencies netting her top ministers, aides and senior party functionaries over corruption charges. 

When her senior cabinet colleague Partha Chatterjee was arrested for the recruitment scam in the education department, she lashed out at the media for giving publicity to the charges against Chatterjee.

The Chief Minister fell silent only when huge mounds of cash and valuables were recovered from properties owned by a close associate of Chatterjee. 

But Banerjee continues to defend her close aide and party’s top muscleman Anubrata Mondal who is a prime accused in a cattle smuggling and illegal coal mining scam.

This despite the central agencies unearthing properties worth hundreds of crores of rupees amassed by Mondal who was a mere fishmonger before he joined the Trinamool. 

Banerjee has also often reacted angrily to allegations of corruption and financial misdeeds levelled against her party functionaries and has spoken of “controlling” the media. 

But this is not the first time that Banerjee has crossed a red line as far as the judiciary is concerned. She had railed against a particular judge of the Calcutta High Court who had ordered probes by central agencies into allegations of corruption against her party leaders. 

In June last year, she had openly accused Justice Kaushik Chanda, who was an additional judge of the Calcutta High Court at that time (he was made a permanent judge later on) of bias and of being a “BJP member”. She had opposed his elevation as permanent judge. 

In July last year, she was fined Rs 5 lakh by the Calcutta High Court for her appeal to remove Justice Chanda from hearing her appeal against the election of Suvendu Adhikari from Nandigram in the assembly polls that year. 

Lawyers close to the Trinamool have, on cue, often clashed with Calcutta High Court judges who deliver adverse judgements and orders against the state government or the ruling party. 

Leader of Opposition Adhikari condemned Banerjee’s statement about “all democratic powers being seized by some people” and her blatant attempt to flatter the CJI.

“She was perhaps talking of herself when she spoke of people concentrating all powers. It is well known that she is an autocrat and cannot tolerate any dissent or divergent points of view. Everyone knows how she has trampled democracy in Bengal by slapping false cases on dissidents and opposition functionaries. She has made a large section of the media in Bengal subservient to her. She should be the last one to talk of democracy,” said Adhikari. 

The Leader of Opposition said that Banerjee is nervous over possible adverse court orders regarding the many cases of corruption and misdeeds against her party functionaries and is, thus, trying to woo the judiciary. 

Referring to Banerjee’s appeal to the judiciary to “hear people’s cries”, Adhikari said: “The only people crying in Bengal today are her party colleagues who are scared of being sent to jail”. 

Many other lawyers that Swarajya spoke to were unanimous in their verdict that Banerjee displayed poor judgement in delivering a speech of a political nature in front of the country’s top judiciary. And that she violated norms and decorum by making allegations of a political nature in front of the Chief Justice of Bangladesh. 

Apart from CJI Lalit and Bangladesh Chief Justice Siddique, Justice Aniruddha Bose of the Supreme Court and Calcutta High Court Chief Justice Prakash Srivastava were also present at the convocation.