Why Narada case arrests boomeranged on BJP in West Bengal

The arrest of four politicians in the Narada sting case, including two senior West Bengal ministers, by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday, seems to have politically backfired on the BJP.

Many within the party are now questioning the move while one leader has even resigned in protest, amid growing criticism of the BJP being a ‘sore loser’.

Dipendu Biswas, who had switched to the BJP from the Trinamool Congress (TMC) before the Assembly election, has resigned from the saffron party in protest against the “vindictive manner” in which the CBI selectively went after the four leaders.

Early morning raids

The CBI on Monday arrested West Bengal Panchayat minister Subrata Mukherjee, Transport minister Firhad Hakim, TMC MLA from Kamarhati Madan Mitra, and former Kolkata mayor Sovan Chatterjee, picking them up from their houses in early morning raids.

The CBI teams allegedly went to raid their houses accompanied by huge contingents of CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force) personnel, with scant regard for Covid-19 protocols. Mitra and Chatterjee have recently recovered from Covid-19.

Mitra alleged that the central forces barged into the room where his wife was quarantined.

Also read: In shunning Centre’s security, BJP MLAs negate party narrative

Chatterjee said six-seven people entered his bedroom while he was still sleeping and took him to the CBI office. “We are not terrorists or robbers…I could not even change,” said Chatterjee, who had joined the BJP from the TMC in August 2019. But after being denied a ticket in the recently held Assembly elections, he had distanced himself from the party.

Biswas said he was enraged by the vindictive attitude clearly manifested in the manner in which the four were arrested. In protest, he sent his resignation letter to BJP state president Dilip Ghosh by post on Tuesday, said Biswas, a retired Indian professional footballer

The former Mohun Bagan and East Bengal player was elected from the Basirhat south seat on TMC ticket in 2016. But, ahead of the 2021 Assembly election, he had switched to the BJP and was made a permanent member of the party’s state committee.

While the BJP has not officially commented on the development, party sources said Biswas was looking for an excuse to leave as he was peeved at not being made a candidate.

Celebrity voices

Two other celebrity-turned-BJP members — Rupa Bhattacharjee and Anindya Pulak Banerjee — have joined the chorus against the CBI move. Many others in the party are privately airing their displeasure over the action. They feel it has given political mileage to the TMC, which has now received support on the issue from even the Left front and the Congress.

“I am surprised by this sudden rush for justice when enhanced restrictions to contain the spread of Covid-19 had just been imposed in the state,” Bhattacharjee told the local media.

Her view was endorsed by Banerjee, who said the arrest could have been delayed at least by another 15 days.  Ego is getting in the way of protecting lives, he rued, clearly taking a dig at the party’s top leadership.

Buttressing the ego theory, a senior state BJP leader said some top party central leaders are yet to come to terms with the humiliating defeat in the Assembly elections that were micro-managed by the ‘high command’, completely bypassing the state unit.

If the BJP central leaders smarting from the defeat aimed at any gains or retribution through the CBI’s selective overdrive in a five-year-old case, that too after completion of investigation, then they have clearly miscalculated their move again.  The reactions within the BJP apart, even the majority view — as has been evident from social media reactions and comments of prominent citizens — is clearly against the untimely and partisan crackdown.

The state’s prominent and independent voices like those of littérateurs Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay and Kaberi Roychoudhury, film and theatre personality Koushik Sen and visual artist Sanatan Dinda, to name a few, are unanimous in their criticism of the motive and timing of the CBI action.

CBI’s damage control

Faced with criticism, the CBI is now trying to do some damage control. The central investigating agency is preparing to move Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla again, seeking sanction to prosecute BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari and TMC MPs Prasun Banerjee, Saugata Roy and Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar in the Narada case, sources in the agency said.

Adhikari is now a BJP MLA and leader of the opposition in the Assembly, but the Lok Sabha speaker’s clearance would be required to draw a charge-sheet against him as he was a parliamentarian at the time of the alleged crime.

The CBI sources said the agency did not find substantial evidence to press charges against BJP leader Mukul Roy and TMC MP Aparupa Poddar and hence it would not immediately seek nod to prosecute them.

The CBI had first sought the speaker’s sanction to prosecute the accused parliamentarians in 2019.

The investigating agency, however, did not take the consent of the Assembly Speaker Biman Banerjee before arresting the four leaders, three of whom are sitting MLAs. It said the Assembly Speaker’s clearance was not required as it had taken the go-ahead from Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar. This was done as all the four were holding ministerial positions in the then Mamata Banerjee government at the “relevant time of commission of crime.”

Mathew Samuel, Editor and Managing Director of the Narada News portal, came out with a sting video ahead of the 2016 Assembly elections. Several then TMC leaders were allegedly seen taking money on camera in the sting video.

The video, however, was shot before the 2014 parliamentary elections. The CBI lodged an FIR in the case in 2017 following a court order.