Enforcement Directorate (ED) and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) become active only when elections are close.

The raids conducted by the central agencies provoked excitement among the people. This happens repeatedly. Neither chargesheets are filed, nor punishments are declared. Once the elections are over, everything fades away.

The ED and CBI are covering up crimes instead of arresting the main culprits. It has been 12 years since the Saradha chit fund scam happened and 11 years have passed since the Narada scam. Still the culprits have not been prosecuted.

ED or CBI are used as political tools. In some matters, the agencies are highly active while others remain completely inactive. We are in favor of investigating corruption. But we are against the use of investigative agencies for striking political deals. We are against the misuse of central agencies. These agencies are competent but are not being allowed to do their own work independently.

In the Sarada case, CBI started the investigation on court orders. After more than a decade why has no one been punished till date? Our objection is not against the investigation. Let the culprit be "apprehended" — we demanded that from the beginning. We demand such investigations as the public money has been looted.

But BJP tries to extract political support by using ED, CBI and other agencies. It has been seen repeatedly. Even if they lose elections, they controle power by splitting parties. This is the misuse that we are opposing. People know that both sides are involved in the deal. If someone indulges in corruption, they must be punished. Agencies like ED or CBI should not be part of political bargaining. Otherwise, the corrupt just switch parties, but corruption doesn’t end.

DIVERSION FROM REAL ISSUES

Hence whatever happened in Kolkata at the premises of a vote trader Indian Political Action committee (I-PAC) is nothing but an old sequence with a new episode.

On the one hand, such actions compel people to assume that these are actions against corruption, though nothing has happened to the accused people so far. The other side of such actions is to overlay the real issues of the people. While the mass of Bengal is in the mood to resolve the real issues regarding their livelihoods, the ED appeared at the premises in Kolkata.

What are the real issues in Bengal? Massive unemployment is the issue. Large scale migration is the issue. Distressed migrant labourers of West Bengal are being heckled, harassed even killed while struggling elsewhere to live. The ongoing SIR is clearly an act of excluding genuine voters, using bizarre claims regarding discrepancies. The marginalised, poor, weaker sections are the scapegoat in such flawed exercise in the name of correcting voter rolls. Despite repeated verdicts from the court, the wages for work (MGNREGS) are still not being paid. The rural poor working women are in great pain while confronting the agents of microfinance companies.

To put a cover on these, the spectre of such investigating action against corruption was staged to reinforce the political binary. The Chief Minister of West Bengal and the state Police have committed a criminal act by seizing documents during the raid. A quick recall of other similar incidents could help. The Chief Minister allegedly rescued miscreants from a police station at Bhabanipur. The vandalism at R G Kar Hospital to destroy evidence was performed by TMC goons. The Chief Minister was on the streets with her entourage to shield Rajeev Kumar from CBI interrogation during his tenure as the Police Commissioner. Repeated drama is enacted on the same script. All of these are meant to generate political clamor; however, such enactment will no longer gain any traction, nor will the people accord it any credence.

While the ED was searching the premises of a private company, the state police rushed in to take away documents and load them into a vehicle that belonged neither to the police nor the government. Such unlawful actions of state police officials including the Director General of State Police and the Commissioner of Kolkata put a brazen face to it. The vehicle was registered on February 27, 2023, as the property of the TMC party. The reference made by the Chief Minister on January 8, to the ‘I-PAC’ office is like it’s a party office of TMC.

DUBIOUS ROLE OF IPAC

The ‘I-PAC’ of Prashant Kishor had assisted BJP to win elections. Later they worked for TMC in West Bengal. It is now being operated by Pratik Jain, colleague of Kishore. Black money from various corrupt practices including coal smuggling, cattle smuggling, gold smuggling and the teacher recruitment scam has been funneled into this entity. To sustain the current corrupt regime, TMC has utilised ‘I-PAC’ from manipulating voter lists to loot votes at polling stations and even at the counting centers. During the current Summary Revision of voter rolls, ‘I-PAC’ employees were found, acting as clandestinely state government staff and carrying documents of appointment for Election Commission duties. This mechanism, where arrangements are being made to insert fake names into the electoral rolls on the one hand while harassing the common people on the other, is the backdrop of TMC’s role during the SIR process. The Election Commission and the ED are cognisant of all this. Neither of them has moved forward with any action against it. The properties of ‘Leaps and Bounds’ founded were confiscated by ED after the voice sample of ‘Kalighat-er Kaku’- a close associate of Banerjee returned a positive match. No raid happened at the nephew's residence, so far. After the Chief Minister’s disposal of 'I-PAC' documents, they failed to take any effective measures subsequently.

Within ten days, the Prime Minister’s visit to the state is scheduled. Is there any hope that he will take action on the use of state administration against central agencies? Prior to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Modi had marketed the ‘Do Laddoos’ of TMC rule in the state and BJP rule at the Centre. We remember, before the last election he asserted on incarcerating the corrupt. Yet, nothing happened apart from saving the Chief Minister and media reports of corrupt people coming out of custody one by one.

The orchestrated spectacle is over. It showed how ED and CBI are being utilised to serve political objective. The Chief Minister of West Bengal, in turn, is employing the state’s police administration in similar fashion. In this realm, even when the ruling party indulges into rank corruption and cognisable crimes, no culprit ever meets with meaningful punishment. Therefore, one is constrained to infer that there is a premeditated ‘mutual’ complementarity. We have to break such attempt of perpetuating such binary politics and have to champion people’s issues.