Tainted leaders cause Trinamool major PR crisis

With party leaders found guilty in the public eye—and suffering its wrath—the party can only do damage control

Tainted ministers and other public representatives embroiled in controversies spell trouble for the Trinamool Congress at West Bengal’s helm, now in its third consecutive term. With the party leaders already found guilty in the public eye—and suffering its wrath—the party can only do damage control.

At the SSKM hospital here on Monday, which he visited for a health check-up to avoid a CBI summons in connection with a cattle smuggling scam investigation, Anubrata Mondal, the party’s strongman in Birbhum district, was called “goru chor” (cow-thief) by the mob that surrounded his car when he was leaving hospital.

In April, too, Mondal skipped the Central Bureau of Investigation’s call to appear for investigation by getting admitted to the same hospital, claiming difficulty in breathing. This time, however, the doctors told him that he didn’t have to be admitted to the hospital.

Also Read | CBI summons TMC's Anubrata Mondal in cattle smuggling case

Trinamool’s veteran leader Partha Chatterjee, who was suspended from the party and removed as a cabinet minister and all party posts, too, was greeted with jeers of “chor” (thief) in July when he went to AIIMS in Bhubaneswar for a court-ordered medical checkup. Chatterjee, who was now in custody and was being interrogated in the case of irregularities in recruitment in government-aided schools, was attacked by a woman who tried to throw slippers at him on August 2.

On Saturday, members of a local Trinamool leader’s family were roughed up in East Midnapore district by residents because the leader had supposedly taken money from people, promising them jobs in return.

While the party distanced itself from Chatterjee, the visuals of crores worth of cash recovered from residences of Chatterjee’s close aide Arpita Mukherjee were imprinted on the public’s collective mind.

Now, as the ruling party’s leaders were being deemed corrupt, the Trinamool, to save face and perhaps itself from anti-incumbency, has no choice but to make promises of punitive actions against those found guilty.