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Narada sting has come back to haunt Mamata

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Romita Datta
Romita DattaMar 30, 2017 | 09:59

Narada sting has come back to haunt Mamata

She would have loved to take the brief of her party men and plead for their innocence in the apex court, of course if the Trinamool Congress leaders, MPs, ministers, accused in the Narada sting operation had faith in her as a lawyer.

Mamata Banerjee in the past had often donned the lawyer’s gown and appeared before the courts, not so much as to argue for a case as to flaunt her degree in law. Perhaps, she too had been nursing a similar desire this time, at least this is what she publicly hinted, when the West Bengal government and the accused party leaders lined up a team of stalwart lawyers to fight for them in the Supreme Court.

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The heavyweight lawyers could not completely bail out the Trinamool Congress leaders from the on-going CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) probe the Calcutta High Court has ordered against the Narada accused. But, they have managed to stagger the period of CBI’s preliminary report by a month, thereby giving the accused a window of a month within which no FIR can be lodged and no one can be arrested.

Mamata is more or less happy. In a recent free-wheeling interview to a popular regional television channel, she, however, couldn’t help make a few points, which she felt she should have raised, had she got a brief to defend. However, in doing so, she made big fauxpas and gaffes, as she often does and later manages to brush them under a carpet.

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Bengal BJP workers protesting against state government over Narada scam in Kolkata.

Had it been a courtroom, her clients would have lost on that very day and miserably. The first thing Mamata did was to partially rubbish the findings of the Central Forensic Laboratory, which had certified the sting operation videotape as genuine and not doctored.

Then, in a sweeping statement, she tried to equate taking bribe and giving bribe both as “criminal offence.” Even as she tried to argue that the Narada boss offering money was a crime, she was in a way acknowledging that her party boys, who were purportedly shown in the video tape taking money, also fell into the same bracket of criminal flaw.

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Memories have not dimmed when Mamata had said in a campaign rally in run up to the 2016 Assembly polls that had she known about “it” (her boys taking money/bribes/donation), say what you want, she would have barred them from contesting the polls.

Earlier, when cornered with logic, Mamata had also said that “they” (Trinamool Congress leaders) have accepted about one to two lakhs rupees, as “donations”— pittance compared to thousands of crores, which had been splurged to ensure the victory of the saffron party in Uttar Pradesh.

Several times, she has also justified taking donation as a necessity for running the show of a poor party such as Trinamool Congress. She is okay with the “cash-for-favour” being considered as corporate donation and not as bribe for lobbying.

Meanwhile, going by the statements Mamata has been making off and on, the party leaders, accused in Narada, have thought it prudent to take matters in their own hands. Apart from engaging their individual lawyers they are lobbying hard, in their own capacities, to avoid being hauled up by the CBI.

“A senior MP was able to absolve himself from the investigation of the Lok Sabha Ethics Comittee because of his proximity to a heavyweight BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) leader. He was in Delhi trying for some understanding with the BJP,” said a senior Trinamool Congress leader on conditions of anonymity.

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Stoking the suspicion of “understanding” and speculation that the accused Trinamool Congress men are trying to maintain truck with the BJP to avoid the CBI, the state BJP president Dilip Ghosh had said earlier this week that a good number of Trinamool Congress leaders have approached the party. But the party has reservations about taking the criminals, Ghosh had made it clear.

“The Trinamool Congress government will not last full term. The party will collapse after the arrest of the leaders and once the leaders go to jail, the party workers will shift base,” Ghosh had predicted.

Such a foreboding has rattled Mamata. She’s also keeping a watch over her flock. To keep the spirit of the party workers high she has asked the senior party members to take out processions and organise marches with slogans and placards decrying the Narada sting to be a tool of political vendetta.

Mayor of Kolkata Municipal Corporation, Sovon Chatterjee, seen in the videotape, had to agree, albeit the fact that he was seen clearly in the video stashing notes under a towel, a cigarette dangling in between his lips, typical of the Hindi villain, Ajit style.

If only Mona darling had been there to accept the sona on his behalf, he could have had a good puff!

(Courtesy of Mail Today.)

Last updated: March 31, 2017 | 12:21
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