| Monday , November 24 , 2014 |
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1141124/jsp/frontpage/story_19080166.jsp#.VHKBmdKUeSo
Revealed now: CM’s close shave | |||
| OUR BUREAU | |||
Nov. 23: Told by Arun Jaitley that calling the Burdwan blast stage-managed without furnishing proof was “neither responsible nor nationalistic”, the Trinamul Congress today pointed fingers at the national security adviser as well as the RSS. “The NSA is a known RSS sympathiser. These devious plans are all conceived, drafted and approved at RSS HQ,” said a Trinamul statement that was issued a few hours after Jaitley blogged about Mamata Banerjee’s outburst against the Centre yesterday and expressed deep disappointment. Ajit Doval, the current national security adviser, had been identified with the BJP and its ideology long before he took up the current assignment, for which political appointees with internal security or diplomatic backgrounds are usually picked. Like M.K. Narayanan who was NSA when the UPA was in power, Doval is a former director of the Intelligence Bureau. After retirement, Doval was instrumental in setting up the Vivekananda International Foundation, a think-tank. Doval’s ideological affinity with the BJP is well known and it did not prevent Mamata Banerjee from meeting him for over an hour on October 27 and promising “all cooperation” in the Burdwan case. Doval had also visited the blast site. Although Jaitley had asked for material proof, Trinamul national spokesperson Derek O’Brien did not mention any in his statement.
Since the chief minister did not consider it amiss to meet Doval less than a month ago, Trinamul must have come across the information on the “devious plans” after October 27. Nothing can be ruled out in terrorism cases but in response to a question from this newspaper, a senior National Investigation Agency (NIA) official today said that so far, no RSS link had been found to the Burdwan blast. Trinamul’s stand also stood out in contrast with the cooperation extended by Bangladesh to the NIA, which is probing the Burdwan blast. It was announced in Dhaka today that a key suspect’s wife who allegedly gave arms training to women in Burdwan’s Shimulia had been arrested in Bangladesh with three others on the basis of information provided by the NIA. If Trinamul is going to apply the yardstick of “RSS sympathiser” to Centre-state relations, no business can be conducted as long as Narendra Modi is in power. Modi was an RSSpracharak. The “RSS sympathiser” quarantine will also force Mamata to review her ports of call in New Delhi. The first Delhi address where Mamata sought solace after the lukewarm reception at the Congress meeting was that of L.K. Advani, who was also an RSSpracharak before he got married. In the blog, which dwelled on the topic of the government and the Opposition, Jaitley expressed deep disappointment with Mamata “Didi’s” reaction to the arrest of Trinamul MP Srinjoy Bose in the Saradha case. Jaitley did not mention Bose by name but took care to refer to Mamata as “Didi” at least three times — something that stood out in sharp contrast to the swear word the chief minister had used to describe an unnamed critic yesterday. Mamata had linked Bose’s arrest to her participation in a Congress-sponsored event in Delhi last week. Jaitley, one of the BJP leaders Mamata had called on during her secular-platform tour in Delhi, also referred to the chief minister’s suggestion yesterday that the Centre may have used RAW, the external intelligence agency, to plant the bomb in Burdwan. “The National Intelligence Agency (NIA) has arrested several people who have engineered the blast. They are enemies of the State. The West Bengal police or the other intelligence agencies have no substantive material to establish that the blast was stage-managed. If there is no such material, why has Didi chosen to allege that the blast was stage-managed? Such allegations clearly help the actual culprits. This is neither responsible nor nationalistic,” Jaitley blogged. Trinamul struck back through a statement by O’Brien, who referred to Bose’s “goodgharana” (see graphic), raised several questions about the BJP’s election expenses and source of funds and moved on to the Burdwan blast. O’Brien’s statement said: “The honourable Mr Jaitley has also written about the Burdwan blast and linked it to nationalism. Let me make three specific charges here: “This is all part of a devious BJP master game plan. “The current PM used this narrative throughout his election campaign in Bengal. This wasn’t a mere coincidence. It was a plan. “The NSA is a known RSS sympathiser. These devious plans are all conceived, drafted and approved at RSS HQ.” Later, in response to a question on the Trinamul statement, Jaitley told The Telegraph:“These are diversionary tactics that will not work. Trinamul Congress members are involved and have benefited from Ponzi schemes. Instead of probing them, why is she identifying with them? An NIA investigation (into the Burdwan blast) is on. If she has the evidence and intelligence to prove that it is all cooked up, then please reveal the information.” Asked about the references to Doval and the RSS, Jaitley said: “This is a pathetic defence of the accused in the Burdwan case.” In the blog, too, Jaitley had put the onus on Mamata to take action after the Saradha scandal. “As a new political party, it was incumbent on any responsible leader to purge the party of such leaders. It is regrettable that Mamata Didi, instead of doing that has chosen identify herself with the cause of these leaders,” the blog said. In his statement, O’Brien asked the BJP to make public details of its election expenses and funding. “Where did the BJP raise their billions of dollars to spend in the Lok Sabha elections? How much money was spent on Maharashtra and Haryana elections? Where is the party getting its massive funding to continue the lavish spending in Jammu and Kashmir and Jharkhand? Why don’t they provide transparent accounts for this unprecedented splurge?” Trinamul also accused the BJP of using black money in elections. “If the nation gets to know how much black money the BJP has spent this year on elections, the party will get blacklisted,” the statement said. Sidharth Nath Singh, the BJP’s national secretary and Bengal in-charge, said Jaitley had raised an important issue, and Mamata should introspect on her and her party’s conduct on the issue of nationalism. “It is relevant after the Burdwan blast that the TMC leadership should answer whether their actions have been in the interest of the nation,” Singh said and listed several instances such as destruction of home-made bombs by Bengal police before central agencies were given access to the Burdwan blast site. |
