Why Mamata Banerjee’s Persistent Attempts To Bully Central Agencies Must Be Thwarted

When a team of CBI officers led by a deputy superintendent-ranked officer went to issue summons to then Kolkata Police commissioner Rajeev Kumar on February 3, 2019, they were manhandled and arrested by Kolkata Police.

This blatant abuse of the law could not have been but sanctioned by chief minister Mamata Banerjee. It was a show of force by her, an act of defiance against the central investigation agency and amounted to cocking a snook at the Union Government. Unfortunately, the CBI and the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) let the blatant abuse of the law pass and did not take any action against the Kolkata Police or the state government.

The CBI, which was probing the Saradha scam on orders of the Supreme Court, should have immediately registered a case under Section 353 of the Indian Penal Code (wrongful confinement, manhandling public servants from carrying out their duties) against the Kolkata Police and proceeded against the police officers who manhandled and detained them.

The CBI should also have approached the Supreme Court immediately to bring the illegal conduct of the Kolkata Police to the attention of the apex court and asked the latter to intervene and sanction penal action against the Kolkata Police. The Saradha probe was, after all, mandated by the apex court and the Kolkata Police’s flagrant attempt to browbeat the investigators, intimidate them and influence the probe amounted to a contempt of the Supreme Court.

But the CBI, and its controlling authority--the MHA--did nothing. Allowing such an act of defiance only emboldened Mamata Banerjee.

The unfortunate inaction on the part of the Union Government led her to believe that New Delhi does not have the spunk to take action against her, and that has only led her to step up her defiance of the Union Government over the last two years since that episode.

Since February 2019, she has kept up a daily harangue of the Union Government, especially Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

One of the latest appalling acts by Mamata Banerjee was her storming of the CBI office in Kolkata after the central agency arrested four politicians (one Trinamool MLA and two of her senior cabinet colleagues) last week. The Bengal chief minister demanded that the CBI release the four arrested and, incensed over their (the CBI’s) refusal to follow her diktat, stationed herself at the CBI office for well over six hours. She also deputed her law minister Moloy Ghatak to the special CBI court that had taken up the bail petitions of the four arrested that day. Ghatak was present in court with a huge number of Trinamool supporters and henchmen.

The CBI made Banerjee and Ghatak parties to its petition before the Calcutta High Court seeking transfer of the Narada case outside Bengal.

The CBI has contended that the chief minister storming the CBI office in a shocking attempt to free the arrested amounted to intimidation and influencing the probe, while Ghatak’s presence in the court with a large number of partymen amounted to an attempt to pressurise and influence the judiciary.

The CBI’s action found oblique endorsement by the Supreme Court earlier this week when it said that the central investigative agency can take action against Mamata Banerjee and others who tried to subvert the law.

Immediately after the arrests of the four by the CBI, a junior minister in Mamata Banerjee’s council of ministers, Chandrima Bhattacharya, lodged a complaint with the Kolkata Police against the CBI officers who carried out the arrests.

And as soon as the CBI made Mamata Banerjee and Moloy Ghatak parties to its petition before the Calcutta High Court, the Kolkata Police converted Bhattacharya's complaint into an FIR.

The Kolkata Police have registered cases under sections 34, 66, 166A and 188 of the Indian Penal Code (some carry a maximum sentence of two years’ rigorous imprisonment) and Section 51(B) of the Disaster Management Act.

This was nothing but vindictive action on the part of the Kolkata Police and could not have been done without the sanction of the chief minister.

The FIR against the CBI officers amounted to a blatant act of intimidation on the part of the Kolkata Police which, acting at the behest of chief minister Mamata Banerjee, feels it can get away strong-arming the central agency.

Another recent vengeful act on the part of Mamata Banerjee is the summoning of six CISF personnel for questioning by the state CID.

Mamata Banerjee had constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the state CID to probe the firing on a riotous mob by CISF personnel guarding a polling booth at Sitalkuchi on April 10.

The mob had reportedly attacked the CISF personnel and tried to snatch their weapons, prompting the CISF jawans to open fire that killed four persons.

The six have been summoned to appear for questioning at the CID headquarters in Kolkata. However, the CISF personnel--a deputy commandant, an inspector and four constables--have not appeared before the CID as yet.

It is quite likely that they will be arrested after questioning because that is exactly what Mamata Banerjee had promised to do as soon as she heard about the deaths of the four--all of them Muslims.

She had then said that she will have FIRs lodged against the CISF personnel responsible for the deaths, which she termed as ‘genocide’ and get them (the CISF personnel) arrested and put in jail.

It is unfathomable why the MHA has not intervened and warned off the Bengal Police from any intended misadventure.

Law and order, admittedly, is a state subject. But there are many mechanisms through which the Union Government can lean on a state police force to deter it from acting illegally or bending the law. Especially when it comes to a state police force acting against a central force.

If the MHA looks the other way in case the Bengal CID arrests the CISF men and officers, or if the Kolkata Police takes the CBI officers into its custody, the central agencies and forces will be completely demoralised.

And they will not be able to, or may even refuse to, perform their duties. The MHA’s failure to protect CBI and Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) officers and men from vengeful and illegal action by a state police will show up the MHA as completely impotent and unworthy of wielding control over the CBI or CAPF.

Inaction on the part of the MHA and the Union Government will also not only embolden Mamata Banerjee into more brazen acts of defiance against the Union Government, but will set a dangerous precedent.

A number of non-BJP chief ministers may be encouraged to follow in Mamata Banerjee’s footsteps and defy the Union Government.

That will spell disaster for the country. A few CMs like Arvind Kejriwal and Uddhav Thackeray have already started taking tentative steps down that insidious and perilous path.

The Narendra Modi dispensation will then find itself reduced to a lameduck government if it fails to take action against Mamata Banerjee’s defiance and bending of the law.

The Union Government has to act, and very firmly and fast. The Bengal chief minister should get a stern message that the price of defiance will be very steep and terrible for her.

Mamata Banerjee’s acts are antithetical to India’s unity, integrity and interests. And she should be told as such in as many words, along with the warning that any anti-national moves will invite swift retribution as per the provisions of the Constitution.