Why Mamata's refusal to share crime data with Centre should be a matter of concern

Spats between the BJP-ruled central government and opposition-ruled states no longer make for major news. Such Centre-state conflicts were there earlier too when the Indian National Congress was the biggest party in India.

But the West Bengal government’s unilateral refusal to anymore refer its crime statistics and other data to the Centre should be taken seriously. Such deliberate defiance by a state of existing norms of Constitutional behaviour within a federal setup affects the governance and security of areas beyond Bengal and the Centre itself.

The TMC leadership insists it will continue its ideological “crusade” against the Centre governed by the “communal” BJP. Boycotting centrally sponsored talks and meetings even to discuss state plan allocations or policy matters is part of the struggle against the Centre.

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In itself, Kolkata’s refusal to send negative data to the Centre would not matter. But the question is why are all negative data resulting from poor governance being withheld from the public domain? All major parties, including the TMC, swear by the need for political transparency. 

Even where the state government has been forthcoming with information about incidents in Bengal, its behaviour has been suspicious, its motives dubious — even on issues concerning the security and safety of the common people .

On Oct 2, 2014, a major blast occurred at a house rented by a prominent TMC leader at Khagragarh in Burdwan. Three people, including two women, were killed. The investigations that followed resulted in a large haul of explosives, chemicals, weapons and other material from the house rented by the TMC leader. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) then stepped in to investigate the case.

Its investigations has so far led to the arrest of over 20 people, mostly Muslims. Two are Bangladeshis and there are those from other states as well. Nine remain at large. They are all a part of a major group of Islamic terrorists, the banned Jamat-ul -Mujahideen (JMB) of Bangladesh. They were setting up active cells and making explosives meant for use in India and Bangladesh against  selected targets.

Bengal police authorities downplayed the incident. The local SP’s first report was that a gas cylinder had exploded. Later, senior ministers, following their Chief Minister, attacked the NIA for “harassing innocent Muslims over a relatively minor incident”.

In another case, a major explosion at a house in Pingla in Midnapoere  district killed at least 12 very poor children. Apparently the house was being used illegally as a fireworks factory. The power of the blast sent the torn, bleeding limbs of the children outside the house, some hanging from nearby trees. Here again, a TMC connection to those running the illegal factory emerged, but the news was under-reported in the Bengal mass media and  there was little follow-up.

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Such cases, which have a direct bearing on state/regional/national security, have followed a macabre and sinister trend. TMC leaders decide the pattern of police investigation. For example, chief minister Mamata Banerjee had dismissed the infamous Park Street rape case that shocked the country as a “concocted drama”. She has used the same phrase for many rapes that followed. Not all rapists have been punished yet.

During the anti-CAA agitations, Bengal witnessed the maximum damage caused to railway property in India, in the Murshidabad and Malda districts with Muslim majority. For over 48 hours, rampaging, slogan-shouting young boys carrying kerosene, petrol and bombs, set entire trains on fire, uprooted tracks and smashed signals and other equipment. The state police took no action. Services remained disrupted in the sensitive border districts for over three months. At last count, the loss to Railways was Rs 36 crore.

Law allows governments to identify and punish those who damage public property. But in Bengal, not a single arrest was made.

However, it is not all about deteriorating Hindu-Muslim relations or the poor governance in Bengal. It is more about keeping the Centre is in the dark when all this happens. The chief minister has ordered that all queries from any official of any ministry or government agency in Delhi must be routed through her office. Officials have to seek the CMO’s permission before answering such queries.

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Until recently, most questions from Delhi went unanswered, as the TMC’s political fight against the BJP spilled over into the sphere of governance/administration. The BJP, faced with such stone-walling, ignored  Bengal. Other states attended such gatherings duly and Delhi took its policy decisions without reference to Kolkata.

There have been several well-publicised instances of defiance of central figures and agencies. CBI officials, for instance, were stopped, even assaulted, by the Kolkata police during the central agency’s probe against former police commissioner of Kolkata Rajiv Kumar, who stayed way from questioning in connection with the Sarada chit fund scam; Bengal officials have repeatedly ignored summons/invitations from the governor for clarification/details regarding a few schemes; state health department officials did not cooperate with a team of medical experts from Delhi who had come to oversee arrangements and provide more help to the people during the COVID pandemic. 

The state government as usual tried to initially underreport the extent of both the medical emergency and its own ineptness.

The Centre had allotted Rs 2 lakh crore for the development of smart city projects, before the pandemic put a spanner in the works. Bengal had opposed the scheme. Kolkata refused to send details of existing services related to health, road, power, economy, etc in the state’s towns and cities.

There was a rumble of discontent and agonised hand wringing later, as TMC leaders understood  they had wasted a golden opportunity to secure a generous financial assistance. Their boycott had also hurt the people of the state.

A few days ago, governor Jagdheep Dhankhar, still waging a lonely battle to remind the state government not to violate the basic rules of Centre-state functioning, deplored the systemic non-reporting of sensitive data to the Centre, whose authority he represents. He rued Bengal’s failure to curb rapes. The exact figures for rapes and other crimes committed in 2019 had not been sent from Kolkata to Delhi. Therefore, central authorities included crime figures sent from Kolkata for 2018 in the NCRB  records. It was explained that Bengal had not sent its report for 2019.

However, the governor, in a tweet, said that at least 223 rapes had been recorded in Bengal. Kolkata-based analysts concluded that Dhankhar had presumably relied on some reports sent by  central agencies in Bengal, which maintained  their own records without reference to the local government.

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Significantly, the mainstream electronic/print media in Bengal did not delve deeply into the outcome of  Bengal’s  non-compliance of minimum governance norms vis-à-vis the Centre. There had been some desultory coverage on such a critical issue some years ago, when the unfortunate trend was taking roots.

Why should this be a matter for national concern? For one thing, now some other states, too, have stopped co-operating with Delhi in such matters, following the bad example set by Bengal. This has been noticed after the anti-CAA agitation.

Apparently, opposition-ruled states have been emboldened by Delhi’s failure to deal with a brewing governance crisis. Instead of seeking an explanation from Kolkata authorities on why they were withholding critically important information, the Centre has avoided a clash with the TMC by looking the other way.

(Ashis Biswas is a Kolkata-based senior journalist. In his long career, he has worked in New Delhi, Kolkata and Guwahati for India’s reputed media organisations)

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