Member of Parliament from the All India Trinamool Congress, and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s nephew, Abhishek Banerjee was questioned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in Kolkata on Friday. It was the third time in a year that the Trinamool MP was being questioned in connection with an alleged coal scam.
Although Trinamool’s image in the public eye was slightly tarnished with two of its prominent leaders now in jail for alleged corruption, the party itself was going strong. After his questioning, Banerjee spent about 40 minutes talking to the media outside the ED’s Kolkata office.
According to his party, the Bharatiya Janata Party had put the central investigation agencies to work because the party itself could not fight Trinamool in West Bengal. Banerjee said he was ready to be punished, if it was proved that he “took even five paisa” in the alleged scam.
In his media interaction, Banerjee decoded these developments in the context of national politics. He alleged that “the non-BJP states were where the agencies were seen pursuing investigations” and not in BJP-ruled states such as Gujarat or Madhya Pradesh. Banerjee also claimed that an attempt by the BJP to destabilise the Jharkhand government was foiled by the Trinamool government. According to him, “had the party (Trinamool) been in power in Goa, the government in Maharashtra could not have been replaced by the BJP.”
In recent weeks, the central agencies, in West Bengal, have been actively pursuing the irregularities in recruitment to government-supported schools, and the alleged illegal cross-border cattle trading.
The senior Trinamool leader, countering the alleged scams, said that central security forces such as CISF and BSF under the Union home ministry, were responsible for protecting the borders and yet the agencies are investigating “across the border smuggling”. He questioned how such anomalies could occur, and if someone needed to take responsibility, it would be the Union home minister, and the Centre.
In his recent public meetings, Banerjee has repeatedly told supporters that the central agencies have undertaken the investigations only because the BJP was failing to find wider political space in the state.
“Like other parties, the Trinamool will not bow down to such pressure,” he said.