Many leaders, both from the youth wing and from various district levels, are getting arrested in West Bengal with alarming regularity. Critics are labelled as opponents of the ruling party, or saffronites, out to destroy Bengal. With more revelations and arrests, such blame by the ruling party seems grossly misplaced and out of steam. The ground for corruption, like but not limited to, the DA, cow smuggling, illegal appointments, coal, etc., seems to be scalding the ruling party. Attempts to claim that Didi is totally unaware of the large-scale corruption sound hollow and indefensible any longer.
West Bengal was relatively cleaner, and misdeeds like land grabs and selling by the then ruling party might have begun in the last lap of the left-rule, when the not-too-focused CM Shri Buddhadeb Bhattacharya had to yield to the ‘JB’ lobby and turn a blind eye to their misdeeds. Mamata romped in with the promise to cleanse the rot, and there was no reason not to believe her then, which seems a bad decision now for the common man.
A few days ago, many leaders sent a letter to PM Modi over the misuse of the “agencies,” the CBI and the ED, to punish the opposition. While on his trips abroad, Rahul regales his mute audience that democracy is in peril and equates India to Russia in the Ukraine war. It is promptly picked up and relayed repeatedly by sold media houses out to destroy India.
The letter to the PM, reportedly drafted by BRS chief and Telangana CM K. Chandrasekar Rao, has eight signatories, which include jobless politicians like Farouq Abdulla, Uddav Thackeray, Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, besides Mamata Banerjee, the CM of West Bengal, Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejaswi Yadav and Arvind Kejriwal.
There is reason for TRS to panic: his daughter, K. Kavita, is under ED notice in the liquor gate scam, over which Sisodia, the Deputy CM, is now under arrest. Shouting of conspiracy, etc., do not hold water. Some even immaturely question why ED is targeting only the opposition leaders and not anyone from the BJP. Such silly questions seem to convey a legitimization of corruption as an accepted norm for politicians. The action over the recent seizures of Rs. 8 crores in Bengaluru from a BJP MLA’s son is closely watched by all to see if the investigating agencies will pursue this case as vigorously as they do with the opposition leaders, sending the accused to prison.
Finally, after the brouhaha over seizures and the evidence collected, how many have been sent to jail? The answer is known to all.
Sampath Kumar
Intrèpide voix.
