Dilip Ghosh’s open defiance of gag orders may have an RSS connect

There is more to what meets the eye in the open defiance of the party by BJP national vice president and former Bengal unit chief Dilip Ghosh.

Thumbing his nose at gag orders from BJP top leadership, Ghosh continues to embarrass the party with his comments.

The latest censoring came after he made a sensational allegation that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is probing several high-profile cases in Bengal, has entered a tacit understanding with the state’s ruling party, the Trinamool Congress.

“The CBI has done some setting in Bengal, prompting the finance ministry to send the enforcement directorate to the state,” Ghosh said on Sunday.

His remark lauding the ED that operates under the finance ministry, while flaying the CBI that functions under the ministry of personnel, public grievances and pensions has a greater political significance.

Also read: Has Trinamool struck a deal with BJP? Latest events hint so

It’s seen as a direct attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who holds the additional portfolio of personnel, public grievances and pensions.

Naturally, the BJP did not take the comment lightly. The party’s national president J P Nadda immediately sought from the Bengal unit a detailed report along with the video clipping of the remark Ghosh made before the media.

The BJP Bengal unit also distanced itself from the Ghosh’s comment saying it was his personal observation.

“Whatever Dilip Ghosh has said, it is his personal comment. The party has nothing to do with it,” said BJP state president Sukanta Majumdar.

On Monday late night, Nadda called Ghosh to caution him against making such “embarrassing” comments that would harm the party’s image, BJP sources said.

Ghosh was, however, unmoved. On Tuesday, at a programme, he again expressed his no confidence on the CBI.

“I said what I had observed. I don’t want to know who runs the CBI. We did not get justice,” he said referring to the CBI probe into the post-poll violence in the state. The BJP claimed around 60 of its party workers were killed in the violence after the Assembly elections last year.

The CBI investigation so far, however, did not find any substantial evidence to support the BJP’s claim.

“The CBI could not arrest a single person for the post-poll violence. What would I say to the family members of the party workers killed in the violence?” Ghosh asked.

It is not the first time that the BJP’s former Bengal president defied the gag order from the central leadership.

Earlier in June, BJP national general secretary Arun Singh sent an email communique to Ghosh asking him to refrain from making comments against his party colleagues. Ghosh had then commented against the state unit president.

“What is this censorship all about? I have not received any letter from the party… Media persons have shown me a copy of some purported letter,” he had said, virtually questioning the authenticity of the communique.

Such repeated defiance led a section in the BJP to believe that Ghosh enjoys sanction from “powerful authorities”.

“Dilip da came to the party after serving as a pracharak of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). He is first an RSS man and then a BJP functionary,” pointed out a BJP leader from North Bengal, hinting that Ghosh enjoys the backing of the Sangh in his nit-pickings with the party leadership.

Also read: On a weak wicket, Trinamool now goes on counter offensive against BJP

It’s an open secret within the sangh-parivar that the RSS is not very comfortable with the growing personality cult around Modi within the BJP because it is weakening its hold over the party.

The recent non-inclusion of two RSS favourites Nitin Gadkari and Yogi Adityanath in the BJP’s parliamentary board, the top decision-making body of the party, and the central election committee further points at the shifting of the BJP’s pivot from the Sangh to Modi.

Ghosh’s remark targeting the CBI coming close on the heels of the rejig, BJP insiders say, is not just an off-the-cuff comment.

It’s part of the brewing cold war between the BJP and the RSS.