CRORES of Indian rupee notes and quasi-equivalent amounts of gold jewellery are found in the properties of former state education minister, Partha Chatterjee and his ‘khaas’ emissary Arpita Mukherjee. This year the month of July took the attention over anything in West Bengal as the ‘eyes wide shut’ of the intelligence regarding the loot of people’s assets moved to ‘do something' about it. The mainstream media shake off their ‘rust’ and showed heavy-duty trucks are on the way to collect the money and other ‘unaccounted’ treasures dug out from the well-known premises of ‘number two’ of the state government.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) officers had called special powered hi-tech note counting machines to measure the huge money seized on the ‘crime’ scene. The first raid happened on July 22, at Arpita’s flat in Haridebpur, Kolkata. The 14-hour official raid concluded with tonnes of Indian rupee notes (in 2000 and 500 currency notes mostly), US dollars, and gold assets. ED states that they have seized other property details (all of them are in the name of Arpita Mukherjee) that led them to the arrest of Arpita and Partha both, for further investigation. Partha Chatterjee was then the minister of commerce and industry, information technology and electronics of West Bengal and Arpita Mukherjee was a former model and Odia film actor. She started keeping in touch with Partha right after the assembly election of 2011. To date, her assets grew at a rocket rate, estimated at Rs 200 crore, as reported by ED.

STARTED FROM THE EDUCATION SECTOR

Let’s take a quick recap of the sensational news headlines over the last 6 months. Primary TET, secondary and higher secondary level recruitment scams first came to the news front in 2020. Then Partha Chaterjee was the education minister. This year the appeal of the valid candidates got the attention of the High Court. The court after going through the papers submitted by both parties ordered a CBI investigation in this regard. To date, that investigation led us to know that two officials were appointed fraudulently (working as assistant teachers in government-aided schools). After being found guilty of securing an official appointment through a completely illegal recruitment setup both were summarily dismissed (along with a total payback order of what they received as salary for the working period) by the court order. Among them, one was Ankita Adhikary, daughter of Paresh Adhikary- current MLA of the Mekhliganj assembly (Cooch Behar) and the then school education minister. Paresh Adhikary played a little hide-n-seek with CBI and after a while was ready to talk. After a week he had been removed from the WB cabinet ministry. That same order empowered CBI to take out the internet connections of the server room of the commission's (WBSSC) office at Salt Lake, being mentioned that all the important data related to recruitment must be kept under strict security. A total of 25,630 vacancies were noted as per official data (13,842 for IX-X standard, 5527 for XI-XII, 2325 for headmasters, and 3936 for primary education),  for which the high court reassured that there is no bar for recruitment due to the legal proceedings going on. This observation cleared the on-air whispers about the TMC government’s bonafide.

The enforcement directorate stated in the court that about Rs 300 crore were looted in the WBSSC scam and at least Rs 100 crore are expected to be excavated in the coming days, provided Partha and Arpita’s ‘cooperation’. They even stated that a handsome amount of that Rs 300 crore was already invested in foreign tourism and hotel business, even in the last assembly election campaign. While the above-mentioned court proceedings were going on, TMC sympathizers and lawyers (they have to be!) tried to disrupt the hearings by arranging ‘dharnas’ in the courtroom.  

After the first seizer, Trinamool’s official statement was very clear and bold- Partha Chatterjee is a stalwart of the party and he is a victim of the investigating agencies out of political vendetta. They even demanded (on press meets and through official tweets) that the central agencies have to make it clear who is the culprit! While these democratic exercises keep pace, ED reported about Arpita’s confession, that whatever the money is, it belongs to the party!

PROTEST ON THE STREETS

On July 27, another 30 crore rupees came out of a flat in Belgharia, again a registered premise of Arpita Mukherjee. With a 180-degree sharp turn, the reply from ‘the party’ was that Partha Chatterjee was expelled from top to bottom of TMC, and right after he was officially relieved from the cabinet too. Kolkata is on its toes now. The streets of Esplanade, Sealdah, Park Circus, and Kamarhati were flooded by long marches holding red flags and with the spontaneous slogan ‘chor’.. ‘chor’... ‘chor’. Every corner of the state is now busy with people’s agitation against the rampant loot and brazen corruption for the last eleven years. Puppets, mimicking TMC supreme and chief minister, Partha Chatterjee, and others were set on fire. In Mamata’s raj, it’s a common practice for the state police to hinder any democratic exercise against the government. Now, when people came out on the streets calling for the end of corruption and chastisement for everyone guilty, they were a bit idle. The rural Bengal too is not a bit low on the current heat, the echo ‘chor…chor…chor’ moved over parts of West Bengal. Partha Chatterjee must have missed it, as he was to receive high-end medical check-ups at regular intervals after the AIIMS Bhubaneshwar found him stable. In between in-n-out of that hospitality, Partha claimed twice on camera about being ‘not guilty’ and only once that ‘money belongs to the party’.

On August 5, West Bengal chief minister, Mamata Banerjee met prime minister, Narendra Modi in New Delhi, and since then thrice. The meeting was official, seeking ‘non-released funds’ and to handle ‘great distress’- of rural Bengal, reported.

On the same day, Noble Laureate Amartya Sen received (with a note of appreciation) Muzaffar Ahmed's memorial prize for his book ‘Home in the world: A Memoir’. A member of Pratichi Trust received the award at Mahajati Sadan in Kolkata, on his behalf. Renowned economist and professor, Sen expressed his concern for the legacy of Muzaffar Ahmad and mentioned a deep family connection with the stalwart long back. Only a small group of sympathetic ‘intellectuals’, the so-called ‘Buddhujibis’ (as they were mentioned during the 2008-2010 period while demanding ‘parivartan’ in favour of Mamata Banerjee) are still numb, everyone else has joined the people’s march against the current loot-raj. Well-known theatre personality Bimal Chakrabarty was arrested while a solidarity campaign program was marching on the road for the valid SSC candidates protesting in a corner of Esplanade, Kolkata for more than 500 days.   

Trinamool Congress is keen to wash both of its hands from the entire distressed situation of Bengal nowadays. The would-be ‘heir’ of TMC, Abhishek Banerjee, a no-one in state government called some of the representatives of the protesting job seekers (valid candidates) into his office shortly after the dismissal of Partha Chatterjee. This ensures they get wind of the storm whirling among people. First, all who have received or paid bribes must come out. Second, the entire amount of money looted from people must be traced back, and last but not least, the head behind the entire setup must be put behind the bar, CPI(M) WB state secretary, Mohammad Salim explained the summary of the public demand.

NEW MEMBERS IN THE CABINET

After Partha Chatterjee’s dismissal, the Trinamool Congress government is keen to keep its’ OPOP i.e., one person, one post status quo. For this, the new cabinet included former BJP MP, now TMC MLA, Babul Supriya along with six new cabinet ministers. However, we all know as long as it is Trinamool Congress, there is not one person but ‘only one person’ and not at all a post but ‘only one post’. The rest are big hunchbacks.

And that ‘only’ thing is just what we are trying to point out!