CBI 'blocked', Mamata on dharna: What this Kolkata chaos tells us about Lok Sabha Elections 2019
Juxtaposed with Mamata’s impetuosity is the male arrogance of the BJP’s top brass.
An absurd political drama has been unfolding in West Bengal during the past 24 hours.
Officers from the Central Bureau of Investigation — reportedly 40 of them — showed up unannounced, at the door of the Police Commissioner of the city, Mr Rajeev Kumar. The city’s top cop had been summoned by the CBI for questioning in the ongoing investigations of the Saradha and Narada ponzi scams.
Some news outlets reported yesterday that not only did Kumar fail to respond to the earlier summons by the CBI, but he was also allegedly “missing”.
Adding spice to the bizarre story about the city’s top cop going missing was the fact that some bystanders had caught a glimpse of Mr Kumar at the Kolkata book fair.
Events unfolded at great speed on Sunday: First, the CBI officers were taken to the local police stations (Park Street and the Shakespeare Sarani PS) by cops from outside Mr Kumar’s house and were detained.
They were released after the Governor intervened.
Members of all political parties then went on a Twitter frenzy, tweeting their solidarity with CM Mamata Banerjee.
I spoke with Mamata Di tonight and told her we stand shoulder to shoulder with her. The happenings in Bengal are a part of the unrelenting attack on India’s institutions by Mr Modi & the BJP. The entire opposition will stand together & defeat these fascist forces.
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) February 3, 2019
Banerjee described Kumar as one of the best and most courageous police officers to ever serve the state.
Later, she elevated him to the best police officer in the world!
BJP spokespersons have been quick to demand President’s Rule, crying hoarse that West Bengal is convulsing in political anarchy.
In their opinion, the Kumar incident is just the latest in a series of political mishaps in the state.
Whichever side one takes in this face-off, there is little doubt that this is a historic moment in the annals of Indian democracy.
The Kolkata Police Commissioner is among the best in the world. His integrity, bravery and honesty are unquestioned. He is working 24x7, and was on leave for only one day recently. When you spread lies, the lies will always remain lies 2/2
— Mamata Banerjee (@MamataOfficial) February 3, 2019
Indian federalism has received a body blow and this will be a constitutional crisis that experts will refer to for many years to come. The drama befits a good Bollywood film. Let us be clear about the antagonisms in play here.
The highest investigative agency of the country is at a war against the law and order machinery of a state, zeroing in on the city’s senior-most police official.
The CM is sitting on a dharna to protest the Centre’s apparently dictatorial and vindictive policies against her state.
It has been noted that the Kolkata police had taken an anticipatory order from the Kolkata High court against possible CBI actions against the police force.
There are reports that the CBI’s move of showing up at Kumar’s doorstep was in response to an apparently desperate PM Modi asking the national security officer, Ajit Doval, to think of ways to discredit Banerjee and her party.
West Bengal has rapidly devolved into a gladiatorial arena, with an ongoing political slugfest. Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, his second-in-command, Amit Shah, several BJP ministers and the office-bearers of the party have been escalating their attacks on Mamata for her alleged dictatorial misrule in the state.
It does not take too much speculation to read into the frustration rooted in their words at the rebuffs experienced by the BJP when Amit Shah and Yogi Adityanath’s helicopters were not allowed to land in West Bengal — the two most recent in a long series of obstacles that the party has faced in the eastern state.
Trinamool officials, in turn, have accused the Centre of trying to effect a “constitutional coup” in the state.
West Bengal has 42 Lok Sabha seats, and as political parties ready themselves for the national elections, the BJP and Trinamool are both amping up their battle cries.
If we take a moment to reflect on the implications of this political drama, then there are several features that deserve to be highlighted.
First, it is not just West Bengal but the country that is victim to a massive institutional breakdown.
The CBI’s integrity as an investigative agency has been in question for quite some time. It is in the open now that the investigative and law and order apparatuses of the country are aligned against one another reportedly at the behest of political leadership.
When the bureaucracy is thus compromised, and there is a complete blurring of boundaries between the legislative and executive branches of the government, surely, the ultimate casualty is the democratic process.
The crisis also puts tremendous pressure on the court system.
The CBI, we are told, is seeking support from the Supreme Court to seek relief from the West Bengal government’s efforts to block their work.
Questions about the independence of the judiciary have also repeatedly surfaced in recent months.
Citizens all around the country will once again be keenly observing the actions of the highest legal authorities of the land.
Finally, it would be hard not to comment on the gender aspect of this political brawl.
Mamata is often depicted by various media outlets as well as by various politicians as a ‘mercurial mad woman’.
#WATCH West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee continues dharna over CBI issue after a short break early morning. West Bengal CM began the 'Save the Constitution' dharna last night. #Kolkata pic.twitter.com/DBoS0GC1MJ
— ANI (@ANI) February 4, 2019
She is portrayed as an irresponsible political opportunist who has all but given away the state of West Bengal to the minority community.
Her so-called 'appeasement' of the minority community, the complete absence of growth and development in the state, and her party’s rampant corruption are topics we hear mentioned endlessly in televised and other speeches.
Her ways are a far cry from Lutyen’s Delhi's style.
Her broken English has elicited endless Whatsapp jokes, as have idiotic poems falsely attributed to her.
Mamata is either a buffoon or an angry tyrant: That is the popular narrative.
Just as Rahul Gandhi was infantilised as “Pappu,” Mamata has been ceaselessly characterised as impulsive, insouciant and enraged, as only women can be.
The point of this portrayal is to establish that she is by no means someone capable of governance, as if her electoral victories occurred by a magical sleight of hand.
Modi, on the other hand, is apparently the calm leader whose gravitas was supposed to ratchet up India’s prestige in the global arena. He was also an outsider to the Lutyen’s establishment, a fact that he reminded us of in his interview at the beginning of the new year, but one who was nevertheless going to give India unprecedented ‘vikas’.
Recent reports on unemployment being the highest it has been in 45 years have no doubt dented the image of the vikas purush.
Juxtaposed with Mamata’s impetuosity thus is the 'male arrogance' of the BJP’s top brass. The Rajeev Kumar saga shows that the hauteur of masculine pride is under severe pressure.
But it is not alone.
The institutions of Indian democracy too are quaking as this absurd drama unfolds.