Centre, TMC to indulge in one-upmanship

With the Supreme Court having given its order, the Centre and the Trinamool Congress-led West Bengal government are hoping for one-upmanship over the CBI row.

The Ministry of Home Affairs has already asked the West Bengal government to take disciplinary action against Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajiv Kumar, who is at the centre of the present row between the Centre and state, a direction Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is set to ignore.

Mamata sat on a dharna from Sunday evening, which was called off after the Supreme Court order that was described by Trinamool Congress as a victory.

The MHA wants action as Kumar had "participated" in the dharna by sitting with Mamata and it feels that it was violation of service rules.

While the question of President's Rule in the state is ruled out, BJP leaders have indicated that it would try to project to the voters that the Mamata Banerjee-led government is "anarchic" in nature and her party does not believe in the rule of law.

Sources said the ruling BJP is not keen to give Mamata a martyr's image by imposing the President's Rule in the state. The top leadership in the party believes that the move may give her a massive push ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.

While both the BJP and Trinamool Congress claim victory in the issue, sources said the Supreme Court order has given something to each party.

Most Opposition parties have rallied behind Mamata, with leaders like N Chandrababu Naidu, Kanimozhi and Tejashwi Yadav visiting her at the dharna site, but Trinamool's bete noire CPM and other Left parties have kept a distance.

At a press conference, CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury said that the Supreme Court order has put both BJP and TMC in their place.

"Both the BJP and Trinamool Congress have been sharing the spoils of the loot of public money siphoned off through the chit-fund scams," he said.

Yechury said the issue was not one of the centre-state relations as the CBI investigation into the chit-fund scams was mandated by the Supreme Court.

"This is not a case where the CBI has suo motu initiated action, so where is the question of centre-state tussle?" he said.

Asked whether the Left was isolated as almost all parties have supported Mamata , he said, "We have been saying that BJP and TMC are both corrupt and are also shielding the corrupt. Far from being isolated in Opposition group, we have emerged as the ones whose position is vindicated. This incident shows that both the BJP and TMC are not only corrupt but also sheilding the corrupt."

On the BJP, he said the ruling party was trying to appear as a corruption crusader.

"Why don't they order a probe into the Rafale scam? There is a long list of corruption cases against the BJP starting from the GSPCL scam, Vyapam, Sahara-Birla diaries, Rice, Nirav Modi, Mining and countless others. Rafale is an open and shut case of corruption, and their involvement is proven by their refusal to have a JPC (Joint Parliamentary Committee)," he said.