It’s a full-fledged scandal. And West Bengal’s political establishment is in uproar. For the Opposition – the Left parties, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress – it’s a gift from the gods.
Three weeks before the first phase of the West Bengal assembly elections, a news website called Narada News on Monday released videos that purport to show several leaders of the state’s ruling Trinamool Congress accepting wads of cash in return for promises to grant favours to a fictitious company.
The sting, which was conducted in March 2014 ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, names Trinamool Congress leaders including its vice-president Mukul Roy; state minister for public health engineering, Subrata Mukherjee; Lok Sabha member Sultan Ahmed; MP and former Union minister Sugata Roy; state urban development minister Bobby Hakim; and Kolkata mayor Sovon Chatterjee, among others.
If the footage of the 11 high-profile Trinamool Congress leaders – with a police officer and an aide of Mamata Banerjee’s nephew also in the mix – raises enough questions, stirs up enough doubt, and provokes enough controversy, the Opposition believes it can do the rest: convince the voter that paribartan (change) is best. In any case, the usual campaign routines have suddenly been transformed into a full-throated outcry against the corruption of Mamata Banerjee and her party leaders.
Changed narrative
Irrespective of whether the videos are authentic, the development has served as a timely reminder of the allegations that Trinamool Congress leaders used their clout to abet the Rs 2,460 crore Saradha chit fund scam. While investigators are still looking into the involvement of Trinamool leaders and their association with scam kingpin Sudipto Sen, Narada News’ videos have revived flagging interest in the probe. And Mamata Banerjee knows it.
To prove her party is untainted by the Saradha scam, Banerjee last week nominated former minister Madan Mitra, still in judicial custody in connection with the Ponzi scheme, as the Trinamool’s candidate from Kamarhati in North 24 Parganas.
The rationale for the chief minister’s gamble is that a Madan Mitra victory would let her off the hook and lend credence to the claim that the people do not believe the Opposition’s allegations and the Central Bureau of Investigation’s tortuous probe. With Mitra among those seen taking cash in the videos, a fresh challenge has emerged in his bid to get elected.
The Opposition is making the most of the situation, and with good reason. In the build-up to the assembly elections, the chief minister has been careful to avoid branding herself as the “symbol of purity” (Satatar Pratik) in campaign posters. This is in vivid contrast to her campaign in 2011, when almost every hoarding, banner and public meeting chanted the Satatar Pratik mantra. The silence on the claim of purity has not gone unnoticed by the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Expected fallout
Some of the Trinamool leaders named in the latest videos have been linked to more than one corruption scandal over the past five years. Firhad Hakim and Sovon Chatterjee, for instance, have been linked to the trident lights scam and the paint scam. Lack of evidence and will to follow through on the reports of wrongdoing have not erased nagging doubts in the public mind about their activities.
Even so, the fresh controversy is unlikely to dent the enormous popularity that Mamata Banerjee enjoys, particularly in the segment that operates in the twilight economy of managing illegalities like land, construction supplies, sand and coal mining. However, the middle class and the poor are likely to be swayed by these allegations of corruption. Fed up with the Left’s localised corruption, these sections had voted Mamata Banerjee to power in 2011 as a symbol of everyday purity, especially her marvellously managed image of simplicity, if not austerity.
There could be another twist to this story. If the BJP convinces Prime Minister Narendra Modi to order a CBI inquiry into the latest allegations of corruption, then Mamata Banerjee may fly into the open arms of her baiters for safety. In that case, she will have to sacrifice the 27% Muslim vote and hope that the Hindu majority will make up the difference.