| Sunday , December 14 , 2014 |
Twice-wielded, bamboo is official weapon |
| Our Special Correspondent |
 Flower petals are showered on the car that ferried Madan Mitra to Alipore court on Saturday. Picture by Bibhash Lodh  Mamata shows her nephew Abhishek’s cellphone displaying a picture of Narendra Modi and another person whom she referred to as “Sahara”. Picture by Pradip Sanyal The botanical name shares the capital 'D' with Didi but it is better known as the Indian bamboo, evidently chief minister Mamata Banerjee's weapon of choice in her battle with the modern-day Goliaths of Delhi. " Jara sat bhabe rajneeti korchhe tader pechhone bamboo deoar adhikar jodi tomar thake, tobe amaar o bolar adhikar aachhe (If you have the right to shove a bamboo up the rear of those who are doing honest politics, then I too have the right to speak)," Mamata told "sportspersons" who rallied today to protest the arrest of sports and transport minister Madan Mitra in the Saradha case. Once might be happenstance but twice in Bengal politics has to be more than coincidence. This is the second time in 10 days Mamata is unleashing the boorish bambooastra. She did so first in Jalpaiguri on December 3, to the accompaniment of a gesture so that no one would be in doubt what the chief minister - an avid champion of culture and an avowed admirer of Tagore - meant. Today, while relaunching the bamboo missile, Mamata did not appear to have reprised the gesture, probably because the great communicator is aware that the long pole is by now indelibly etched in the political psyche of Bengal. Without the faintest touch of irony, Mamata declared at the meeting near Eden Gardens that her crusade is also intended at saving the culture of Bengal, which she said was "under threat". It is not clear whether the loyal culture clan of the chief minister would henceforth be seen wielding a bamboo pole or a stick in public. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had identified itself with the broom while the umbrella became the symbol of the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong. The bamboo, after all, is much more potent - and painful, if the chief minister's graphic description is any indication - than either the broom or the umbrella. Mamata herself gave a taste of the "cultural" campaign ahead - promising to uphold the dignity of her post and undermining it in the same breath. "I hold a post so I am not saying this. Noyto boltam tene jibh chhirhe nebo (Otherwise, I would have said, 'I'll tear out their tongues')," Mamata said of her political rivals who suggested the CBI should probe those who turned up at the rally. The "culture" was also in evidence when Trinamul sympathisers shouted "shame, shame" in a courtroom to egg on Mitra and drown the arguments of the CBI counsel. A police vehicle was damaged and journalists of Times Now, the television news channel, were chased. Asked why a chief minister would feel compelled to use such language, a consultant clinical psychologist said: "Extreme frustration can lead to aggression. Language such as this is a form of aggression. But repeated use of such language also signifies familiarity with it." In keeping with the exalted status of the bamboo, the first foe facing the thrust is Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Mamata demanded Modi's arrest, saying he had shared the dais with "Sahara". The reference appeared to be to Subrata Roy, now in jail in a financial case. Mamata was drawing a parallel with allegations that attendance at Saradha events made Mitra guilty. Holding up a cellphone her nephew Abhishek Banerjee handed to her, Mamata said: "Should I show you photographs of Modi and Sahara? I have heard there is a red diary. It contains all the names. You will shiver on hearing the names." Mamata added: "See, Aroop (Biswas, state housing minister) has found this on the Internet. Isn't this chit fund? There are photographs with Sahara... So, arrest the Prime Minister." She asked Aroop to get 10 lakh posters of the photograph made and splash them. The photograph appeared to have been taken when Roy attended Modi's third swearing-in ceremony in Ahmedabad on December 26, 2012. If Mamata is going to make stage-sharing with Roy a ground for arrest, she will find it difficult to invite Amitabh Bachchan to inaugurate the Kolkata International Film Festival again. Bachchan, who used to be a regular face at Sahara events, had inaugurated Mamata's pet film festival three times in a row, including this year's edition last month. In the Saradha scandal, thousands of poor depositors have lost money. In the Sahara case, questions are being asked about the identity of the depositors and whether they were fictitious. Besides, by 2012, when Roy met Modi, Sahara's decline had begun. Saradha's most spectacular rise had taken place in the years Trinamul was in power.   DIDI SPEARHEADS STIR AS SARADHA NOOSE TIGHTENSSunday, 14 December 2014 | Saugar Sengupta/PNS | Kolkata/New Delhi The fallout of West Bengal Transport Minister Madan Mitra’s arrest in connection with the Saradha scam spilled onto the streets of Kolkata on Saturday with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee leading a protest march and attacking yet again Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Centre for “manipulating” her party leader’s arrest. The Left, fast losing its political space to the BJP in the State, also took out a parallel march demanding the immediate grilling of the Chief Minister in the scam.  The BJP counter-attacked Mamata from Delhi as well as from Bengal saying that “rattled” by the possibility that her “own involvement” could come to light, she is pressing the “panic button”. While Mitra was sent to four-day CBI custody till December 16, Mamata rejected demands to sack the Minister. Addressing the rally, Mamata, who had dared Modi to arrest her shortly after Mitra’s arrest, targeted the PM yet again by saying: “If image is a proof of criminal conspiracy, then the Prime Minister should be arrested for Sahara scam.” Apparently referring to photos of Mitra sharing the dais with Saradha Group chairman Sudipto Sen, who is now cooling his heels in jail, Mamata said, “There are photos of several CPI(M) leaders with chit fund owners. There are photos of the PM with the Sahara chief. Should we demand that CBI arrest PM Narendra Modi?” Though she did not name BJP observer for Bengal Siddharthnath Singh, she, nevertheless, made her target of attack clear by saying “the man who had from a rally here said bhag Mamata bhag deserves his tongue to be torn off. I would have done so but for the dignity of my chair”. She alleged that the BJP had planned Mitra’s arrest from Delhi and warned she would take the battle to its logical end by teaching the party leadership a lesson of lifetime. Attacking the CBI for “acting like the goons of their political bosses at the Centre”, she claimed Mitra, a key party organiser and also State Sports Minister, was called as a “witness” to the CBI office and was arrested hours after following a phone call from Delhi. The BJP responded with BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi maintaining, “If anything which is linking Mamata Banerjee with the scam, she would be investigated and interrogated by the CBI. It is for CBI to take that call and not for me to direct the CBI.” State BJP president Rahul Sinha termed her jumpy reaction a product of overpowering nervousness “anticipating the fate of many Trinamool leaders, including herself.” Left leaders, including Biman Bose, who took out a massive rally demanding immediate quizzing of Mamata, said, “We want her to be grilled now so that things are revealed at the earliest.” They also immediately dismissed her combative move saying she was doing so to save her own skin. “Unlike Tarun Gogoi or Naveen Patnaik she cannot junk her lieutenants because they will reveal all to the CBI then,” said CPI(M)’s Sujan Chakrabarty, adding she is mobilising the party goons so that they do not cross over to other camps. The Chief Minister did what her Assam and Odisha counterparts wouldn’t by literally taking sides of the accused and inciting her partymen to hit the street, block traffic and jam the court premises for hours disallowing Mitra to be produced before the designated magistrate, he said. “She is trying to save herself because she knows that if Kunal Ghosh can give her so much trouble then Mitra can definitely give her bigger blows if he gets antagonised against her. So she has no way but to back him,” said Rahul Sinha. For his part, Mitra, who gave ample signs of breaking down earlier than thought, made a brief pleading before the court saying how the CBI officials initially expressed satisfaction with his statements during the grilling session on Friday. “I was given tea and even told that I would be let off soon. But at the last moment some officers came to me and expressed regrets saying there were orders from Delhi that I should be arrested.” Sources said the CBI could use his custody to make him sit in front of both Ghosh and Sudipto Sen. http://www.dailypioneer.com/todays-newspaper/didi-spearheads-stir-as-saradha-noose-tightens.html |