The Lok Sabha on Monday witnessed uproar as opposition parties led by the Trinamool Congress (TMC) protested vehemently against the Central Bureau of Investigation raid in Kolkata, calling it a misuse of the agency against political opponents, forcing speaker Sumitra Mahajan to adjourn the House for the day.
Soon after the House re-assembled in the post-lunch session, the Trinamool Congress and other opposition leaders were on their feet. They trooped near the speaker’s podium and started sloganeering against the CBI and the Central government.
Parliamentary affairs minister Narendra Singh Tomar urged the agitating members to begin discussion on the thanks giving motion on the president’s address to the joint sitting of the Parliament.
But they did not relent. As the din continued, Mahajan adjourned the House for the day.
Earlier, raising the issue during Zero Hour, TMC leader Saugata Roy dubbed the situation in West Bengal as a “constitutional crisis” and accused the Centre of constantly using the CBI to throttle the opposition voice and to intimidate them.
“40 officers of the CBI went to the house of the Police Commissioner of Kolkata without taking any previous permission, without specific order from the Court and they wanted to question the Police Commissioner of Kolkata. Our Chief Minister went to the Police Commissioner’s residence and she protested but they were unrelenting. As a result, the Chief Minister went on a ‘dharna’ since last night,” he said.
Roy said the ‘satyagraha’ by the Chief Minister was to highlight the misuse of CBI against non-BJP governments.
“They have done it especially after the January 19 rally where 22 political parties got together to challenge Modi and his BJP. They are constantly using the CBI to throttle the opposition’s voice and to intimidate them. A situation like this is unforeseen in the country,” Roy said.
He said the CBI was being used against the state government illegally and politically to capture West Bengal.
“This is not the way they will succeed. In elections, they will get a big zero,” Roy said.
Other opposition parties including the Congress, NCP, RJD and the Samajwadi Party and BijuJanata Dal too criticized the CBI move.
BJD’s BhratruhariMahtab accused the Centre of using the Central Bureau of Investigation as a weapon against opponents.
“Yesterday’s incident questions the integrity of the CBI. The manner in which the CBI has been functioning is not professional. We are not in a Banana Republic. This should be stopped,” Mahtab said.
Recalling how the CBI barged into a judge’s office in Odisha recently, he said: “We want the CBI to be a professional institution”.
Congress leader MallikarjunKharge slammed the government and accused it of trying to finish off the opposition by using the CBI.
He claimed that such incidents were happening in Lucknow, Chennai and several other places. “No party will bow to your illegal measures,” he thundered.
Rajnath Singh refuted the charges and termed West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s ongoing sit-in protest in Kolkata as “unprecedented”.
As Rajnath Singh was making his statement, TMC members trooped near the Speaker’s podium and started sloganeering against the Centre.
They were joined by Congress, Samajwadi Party, RashtriyaJanata Dal and Telugu Desam Party members.
Amid the din, speaker Mahajan tried to proceed with the Zero Hour urging the opposition members not to disrupt the proceedings. But they did not relent.
Mahajan then adjourned the House till 2 pm.
Earlier, the opposition members created ruckus over the same issue during Zero Hour, leading to the first adjournment till noon.
WB GOVERNOR SUBMITS REPORT TO MHA
West Bengal governor K N Tripathi has submitted a report to union home minister Rajnath Singh on the situation that unfolded in the city after a CBI team was allegedly obstructed by the police from questioning Kolkata police chief Rajeev Kumar in the Saradha scam, Raj Bhavan sources said Monday.
The contents of the report were, however, not immediately known.
“The governor has submitted his report to the MHA (ministry of home affairs). Today, in the morning, he spoke to union home minister Rajanth Singh,” sources told PTI.
The report was prepared by combining the report of the Subsidiary Intelligence Bureau and the reports submitted to the governor by the state chief secretary and the home secretary late Sunday night, the sources said.
In an unprecedented development, a number of CBI officers, who had gone to question Rajeev Kumar in connection with chit fund scam cases, were bundled into police jeeps, whisked to a police station and briefly detained on Sunday.
Hours after the incident, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee began a sit-in right in front of the Metro Cinema to protest “insults” she faced at the hands of Prime Minister NarendraModi and BJP chief Amit Shah and claimed the CBI knocked on the doors of Kumar without a search warrant.
Tripathi had last night summoned the state chief secretary and state director general of police and asked them to take immediate action to resolve the situation.
Rajnath Singh had called up the governor to know the facts of the “unfortunate and unprecedented situation of CBI officers being manhandled, detained, intimidated and obstructed”, the officials said.
The home ministry on Sunday evening received information that CBI officers in Kolkata had experienced “intimidation and threat to personal safety in course of investigation into the Saradha scam being conducted under the directions of the Supreme Court”, they said.
The ministry has deployed central forces at the CBI office and residential premises of the probe agency officials in the state and it is now “closely monitoring the situation”, they said.
According to the CBI, IPS officer Rajeev Kumar, who led a Special Investigation Team of the West Bengal Police probing the ponzi scams, needs to be questioned regarding missing documents and files but he has not responded to notices to appear before the agency.
Kumar, a 1989-batch IPS officer of West Bengal cadre, did not even attend a meeting with Election Commission officials who had gone to Kolkata to review election preparedness.
According to officials in Delhi, the union home ministry will examine the role of some IPS officers in the alleged obstruction put up against a CBI team probing the Saradhaponzi scam in Kolkata and whether they violated the service conduct rules while preventing questioning of city police commissioner Rajeev Kumar.
The Union home ministry is the cadre-controlling authority of the Indian Police Service (IPS) officers in the country.
‘THREAT TO FEDERAL SYSTEM’
Defending CBI action against the Kolkata police commissioner, Rajnath Singh Monday said the move to stop the central probe agency from performing its duties is a threat to the federal political system of the country.
Making a statement in the LokSabha, the minister said that he would not hesitate to say that the incident that happened on Sunday indicates of constitutional breakdown in the state.
He said the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is probing a multi-crore chit fund scam and wanted to interrogate Kolkata Police chief Rajeev Kumar in this regard.
“Yesterday (Sunday), the CBI was stopped from performing its lawful duties. This is unprecedented,” Rajnath Singh said during Zero Hour.
He said the CBI acted in line with a Supreme Court order to investigate the Saradha chit fund case and the agency was forced to take action against the officer as he was not cooperating and failed to reply to repeated summons.
“There are allegations of nexus between politicians and influential persons in the scam and the agency is probing the matter as per the direction of the Supreme Court. The stand-off between the agency and the state police is not only unlawful and unfortunate but also poses a grave threat to the federal and political system,” he said.
He said if law enforcement agencies would be stopped from performing their duties, it would create chaos.
“We respect the rights of states. The Constitution has given rights to the Centre to ensure lawful conduct of the governments. I don’t hesitate to say that whatever happened yesterday (Sunday), points to constitutional breakdown (in Bengal),” he said.
The BJP leader informed the House that he has sought a detailed report from West Bengal Governor KesariNathTripathi on the issue.
“The Governor has summoned the chief secretary and the director general of police and asked them to take immediate action to resolve the situation,” he said, urging the state government to allow the law enforcement agencies to discharge their duties in a conducive atmosphere.
MY DHARNA NON-POLITICAL: BANERJEE
West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday termed her ‘dharna’ (sit-in) as “non-political” and not against any individual agency but the “anarchic moves” of the NarendraModi government to “destroy” democracy.
“Our satyagraha is not against any individual agency. Our protest is against the anarchic moves by the Modi government, against their attempts to divide the country and spread hate, intimidation and terror among people,” said Banerjee, who is holding the sit-in here since Sunday night following a face-off between the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Kolkata police.
“We are holding this demonstration under the ‘Save India’ banner, to protect the constitutional, democratic and social rights of people. We also want to ensure that people’s freedom of speech is protected and the officials of different state and central agencies can work impartially,” she said.
Banerjee said the demonstration might continue till February 8.
Beginning the sit-in on Sunday night, she accused Modi and BharatiyaJanata Party chief Amit Shah of attempting a coup to destabilise her state, saying there is a “constitutional breakdown”.
Noting that her demonstration has received support from opposition leaders across the country, Banerjee said her tirade against the BJP government is not an individual battle but a collective fight.
“There are no political issues here. Law should take its own course. But if someone tries to illegally destroy the democratic fabric of the country, then the whole democracy becomes irrelevant,” said the Trinamool Congress supremo, who was accompanied by close party aides and several city-based artistes and intellectuals on the dais.
“It is not a small issue. Prominent leaders from across the country have extended their support to us. All the state-based political parties and those who believe in the importance of federal structure are beside us. It is not an individual fight but a collective fight,” she said.
Accusing the Centre of trying to stage a “coup” against everyone who speaks against them using the agencies at their disposal, Banerjee claimed that under the current regime talking against the BJP has become synonymous with going to jail.