Saradha scam: Madan Mitra and Mamata's house of cards
There was a time, Mamata Banerjee had said in a much-watched television interview, "I love democracy. Not goons or guns." About ten minutes after this statement, Didi stormed out of the interview, ironically titled “Question Time Didi”, after her camaraderie with a certain Madan Mitra was questioned. The Presidency College student had asked about the “conduct of Madan Mitra...” and whether or not it left a “bad taste in the mouth” for Mamata. Calling the student a Maoist, the West Bengal chief minister left the session midway, unable to digest a Mitra-laced dart thrown at her.
This Madan Mitra is the undisputed king of controversies. Even as far as Mamata's close group of controversial aides are concerned. From being the state Congress secretary when Trinamool was in its early days, to shifting loyalties, moving to TMC and holding the position of the state transport minister in Mamata's government, Mitra's is a story of loyalty for Didi and the rewards it can win for one. It is not just the ministerial rank that Mitra enjoys; it is more to do with his closeness with Didi. So much so, that his arrest in the Saradha scam case has made Mamata bay for the Centre's blood.
In July 1993, in one of the worst cases of eruptions of violence in West Bengal, that took place near the Secretariat, Mitra was blamed for having provoked the police into firing at an unarmed crowd. Amid allegations, Mitra's stand stayed immovable. He denied his role in the provocations, all along. That was probably one of his first brushes with infamy. But no, not the last one.
In January 2012, Mitra was the rallying point of a fiasco, which involved the minister's red-beaconed Scorpio and several red-faced police officers who happened to stop his vehicle at a certain check-post in Maniktala, Kolkata. Mitra's car being stopped - this sin of sorts resulted in a volley of the choicest Bangla expletives from the man's mouth, and the hapless traffic guys ended up humiliated to the core. The incident made it to the news, but was forgotten soon after.
After that, Mitra was embroiled in yet another controversy in February 2013, when the minister was in the midst of gregariously addressing a group of Calcutta Tramways' employees. A Tarak Das, who happened to have the audacity to cut the minister's speech and ask about their pending salaries, faced an open threat from Mitra. Notwithstanding the numerous cameras and reporters present at the event, Mitra shouted into the microphone, "Ai eta ke re? Ke bollo eta? Shamne aay dekhi. Aami ekhane aapnar complaint shonar jonno ashini, bujhlen?" ("Hey, who said that? Come in front of me; if you dare to. I'm not here to listen to your complaints; got it?")
The next bullet in Mitra's controversy-ridden armour arrived with the death of one Piyali Mukherjee, a lawyer and student leader, who had been groomed by Mitra himself. After the 28-year-old's apparent suicide, Mitra distanced himself from any discussion that involved Mukherjee; and meetings with Mitra turned into a much private, checked affair.
Once the Saradha scam was unearthed, and Madan Mitra's alleged role in the same began being probed by the CBI, a few influential feathers were ruffled in the echelons of power in West Bengal. One after the other, the Saradha guys graced the prison chambers. And then followed the big shots of the Bengal government. TMC MP Srinjoy Bose, suspended MP Kunal Ghosh, TMC functionary Rajat Majumdar have already been handcuffed and handed over to hands more powerful than Mamata's. Debabrata Sarkar, Sandhir Agarwal, Sadanand Gogoi - the Saradha guys; along with the scam mastermind Sudipta Sen, are now being joined by Madan Mitra: the most shocking of arrests in the case, as of now. But then, given the fact that Mitra was spotted at major Saradha events many a times, might have given one a fair amount of idea as far as his alleged role in the scam is concerned.
One of Didi's best men away behind the bars; the West Bengal chief minister, for all we know, is but one step away from losing her already much-debatable sanity. She has sworn justice for Madan Mitra at any cost, calling the CBI officers names and doing whatnot. In Kolkata, vehicles, too, have been burnt as a mark of protest against Mitra's arrest. The much-famous bamboo of Didi's vocabulary already seems to have sprouted in her backyard. Maybe it is just a matter of time till Mamata's government tumbles like Rabindranath Tagore's house of cards. Maybe, like she had avenged the CPI(M) goons who had hit her on the head and thrown her out of Writers' by making herself the CM and ruling over Bengal from the same Writers', Mamata will survive this, too. But for the average Bengali, “poriborton” will no longer be equated with the Trinamool, or people like Madan Mitra. That's for sure. For no matter how much she speaks of not having an appetite for goons and guns, the reality under Didi's regime in Bengal, begs to differ.