Asim Kumar Mitra
It seems that politics of vindictiveness has become the order of the day in West Bengal. About two years back when 34 years of Communist rule in the State had been bowed out from the seat of power and Mamata Banerjee’s TMC became victorious, she promised that her administration would not pursue the policy of vindictiveness. Instead, they would strive for overall development of the State and at the same time, they would rectify the wrongs done by the former government. Hence the sailing of the new government by TMC under the leadership of Mamata Banerjee was smooth. But it could not continue for long as the former government run by the Communists had left behind them ‘a legacy of complete mess’ in the administration.
Communists led by CPM took this as weakness of the new government and started organising onslaught on every step in the form of agitation programmes. But in no time they could discover that they had no support base in the public. This realisation had made them to adopt the policy of infiltrating into the Trinamool Congress (TMC) so that they could create trouble in the ranks of TMC from within. So far this policy paid them good dividend as they were successful in creating confusion not only among the media but in the cadres of TMC also.
To tide over this situation, Mamata Banerjee lost no time to follow the policy of vindictiveness against the CPM. She started raking up the cases of atrocities perpetrated by the CPM against their opponents. In the process ex-CPM ministers like Nirupam Sen (Finance), Surjya Kanta Mishra (Health), Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee (Chief Minister), Kanti Ganguly (Sports) etc. were all targeted. The CPM leadership had become extraordinarily alert as the crimes they had committed were not only heinous but also attracted punishment.
In this regard Communists had a perception that they had destroyed all those documents which could be suicidal at the time of trials. But when Mamata started disclosing cards against those ex-ministers of CPM one by one, they had virtually stopped taking any initiative against TMC. At this stage Communists had activated their third option. They always thought Congress and BJP had been their easy prey and accordingly they had started instigating these two parties. For Congress, it was a well established fact that they were hands in glove with the Communists. Time and again they had proved this attitude towards Communists by their actions. So it was not a new thing.
But wooing BJP for getting things done in their favour and on different occasions terming the BJP as the B-Team of Communists was hard to digest even by the general public. But continuous propaganda on this count definitely creates some kind of impact in the minds of general mass. On the other hand BJP was put in a tight corner when they pursued any policy against the ruling party; CPM would jump into the matter just to take advantage of the situation by supporting BJP’s stand. TMC also had an advantage to term BJP as CPM’s crony.
As a matter of fact BJP has been a national party with a well thought out agenda of its own. In West Bengal BJP is not in alliance with any party. It is against the wrong policies of the ruling party of the State which should not mean that it has been supporting either Congress or CPM. As an independent all India party BJP has been pursuing its programmes for establishing its own organisational base; no matter it would go in favour of any other party.
Under these circumstances the alliance between Congress and TMC was broken and Sonia Gandhi, the Congress chief had started pursuing vindictive policies against TMC. When Mamata’s men had withdrawn from the central ministry Sonia immediately took up the position to teach Mamata a lesson with vindictive motive. She had inducted two ministers from West Bengal Congress who had been known as arch rivals of Mamata Banerjee. They were Deepa Dasmunshi, wife of former I&B minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi and Adhir Chowdhury, who was emerged as a strongman of North Bengal Congress after getting Pranab Mukherjee elected as M.P. Both were permitted by Sonia to abuse Mamata in filthy language and do whatever they like to demoralise the State government. These were all vindictive actions against Mamata Banerjee. Both of them threatened the State government to withdraw all those economic projects approved by the Central Government if Mamata Banerjee would not mend her ways to ignore the authority of the Central ministers. Day in and day out these war of words has been going on virtually stopping all the works of economic projects which would benefit the State.
Sharp reaction came from Mamata Banerjee as she had taken a most virulent and vindictive step against both the said Central ministers. First of all Mamata transferred Humayun Kabir as police chief of Murshidabad district where from Adhir Chowdhury was elected as Member of Parliament. Humayun Kabir was one police officer who knew all wrong doings of Adhir Chowdhury. Hence, immediately after assuming the post of S.P., Kabir had arrested 12 persons of a gang who were known as ‘Murder Syndicate’ of Adhir Chowdhury. Kabir had claimed that after prolonged interrogation some members of this ‘Murder Syndicate’ had confided that Chowdhury was involved in few murder cases. In Writers’ Buildings Mamata had told reporters that Kabir had already prepared a CD of this interrogation.
The other vindictive action Mamata was going to take against Deepa Dasmunshi as she had abducted one Biman Bhattacharya in 1992, who was said to be her ‘boyfriend’, allegedly was living together and was still untraced. His elder brother Bidhan Bhattacharya, on September 30, 2012 had complained to the President, the Prime Minister, the Governor and the Chief Minister regarding this. In the month of July, 1992, Biman suddenly vanished. His elder brother Bidhan on July 11 1992, filed an FIR with Gariahat Police Station. Jyoti Basu, the then chief minister, ordered a police enquiry. But nothing had happened afterward. Mysteriously the whole thing was hushed up. Mamata had declared that she would pursue the case in the public interest.
So the political game has taken a new shape in the State and it is obvious that Mamata is not going to buzz. Let us see what happens next.
