Didi's Dadagiri

By taking on the CBI, Mamata Banerjee is sending a clear message on what to expect if she is targeted in the chit fund scam

- Rabi Banerjee

In 1969, West Bengal chief minister Ajoy Mukherjee became the first serving chief minister in India to sit on a dharna. Ironically, Mukherjee was agitating against deputy chief minister Jyoti Basu, who was also the home minister, over the control of the police forces. Half a century later, Kolkata witnessed yet another dharna by a chief minister as Mamata Banerjee took the CBI head on, after it tried to interrogate Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar in the Saradha chit fund scam.

On February 3, worried that the CBI would raid Kumar’s residence, Mamata ignored protocol and drove to the commissioner’s bungalow. At a news conference outside the bungalow, she announced that she would sit on a dharna till the CBI stopped “harassing” Kumar.

With Mamata coming to his rescue, Kumar, who the CBI said was absconding, came out of his house and instructed his officers to control the mob and ensure the chief minister’s safety. As Mamata left for the Metro Channel at the Esplanade, Kumar followed her. A stage was quickly prepared for the chief minister’s dharna, and a makeshift room used by the traffic police was spruced up for cabinet meetings.

The crisis began after a CBI team investigating the Saradha scam tried to interrogate Kumar. As the team could not locate him, it went to the Shakespeare Sarani police station to hand over a letter demanding his cooperation. CBI sources told THE WEEK that the policemen at the station attacked their team under Kumar’s orders, which they said was cleared by the chief minister herself. The policemen manhandled the CBI officers, snatched their mobiles and detained them for hours. The Anti-Rowdy Squad of the Kolkata Police soon rushed to the residence of CBI joint director Pankaj Srivastava to arrest him. Srivastava barricaded himself inside his home, refusing to come out.