Mamata Vs Modi: No Holds Barred

A master of dharna politics, Mamata turned the CBI-Kolkata police showdown into an opportunity to project herself as the leader of an anti-Modi alliance

- Romita Datta and Kaushik Deka

A podium sporting the tricolours of the Indian flag and a blue ‘Save India’ hoarding sprang up at the corner of a busy thoroughfare along Kolkata’s Esplanade. Sitting in the middle of a saffron-white-green shamiana was Mamata Banerjee in her trademark white and blue bordered saree. The colour coordination was a conscious move, and on the lines of the Mahatma’s satyagraha, the West Bengal chief minister had donned the role of a crusader. On behalf of Ma, Maati and Manush (mother, motherland and people), she was protesting against the alleged assault on “democracy, the Constitution, state institutions and the federal structure of India” by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah.

With less than 100 or so days left for the Lok Sabha election, the battle lines have been drawn—it will be Modi-led NDA versus a coalition of once unimaginable allies such as the SP and BSP. And with her 48-hour-long dharna, Mamata sent out a clear message—she’s ready to lead the anti-Modi alliance.

This grandstanding by the West Bengal CM was provoked by a team of CBI officials who arrived at the residence of the Kolkata Police Commissioner, Rajeev Kumar, on the night of February 3 to interrogate him in connection with the Rs 12,000 crore Saradha chit fund scam. The CBI alleged that Kumar had not been cooperating with it in the probe and had tampered with evidence. Mamata was not short of options to shield her police commissioner, but the shrewd politician in her sensed the bigger political opportunity that the crisis offered. She has remained silent earlier, in the face of the arrests of several top leaders of her party, the Trinamool Congress, but when the CBI targeted one of her most trusted police officers, she launched an unprecedented counter-attack with a political message.