While toadies continued to work overtime flattering Mamata Banerjee no end yet another Trinamool MP made a blatant display of sycophancy daring the CBI to arrest the Chief Minister and risk a burning Bengal. Addressing a party meeting in North 24 Parganas late on Tuesday evening, Idris Ali the Trinamool MP from Basirhat asked the CBI now probing the Saradha chit fund case to “remember that she is the daughter of fire and if you arrest her or even touch her, whole Bengal will burn.”
Even after being told that some of his senior party colleagues were “embarrassed” at the needless mentioning of Banerjee’s name in the chit fund controversy, Ali an advocate in Calcutta High Court stood his ground saying “all the Hindus and Muslims of Bengal will lay down their lives for Mamata Banerjee” because no one was dearer to them than their own agnikanya.
“Even I would lay down my life for her. let the CBI once touch her,” Ali said dismissing suggestions that Banerjee or for that matter any Trinamool leader had any hand in the multi-crore chit fund scam that had affected more than 18 lakh people in the State.
Besides being known as a regular shuttler between the Congress and the Trinamool Congress, Ali’s another claim to fame was his reported fanning of communal tension around Taslima Nasreen’s stay in Bengal a few years ago. Then Army had to be called in for a few hours in Kolkata to avoid a crisis.
Apparently unsatiated by the reverie of setting Bengal in fire, the MP also demanded Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s arrest saying “if Mamata Banerjee is to be arrested then Mr Modi should also not be spared because he was also seen in a photograph alongside jailed Sahara chief Subroto Roy.”
When reminded that no one in the CBI had suggested Banerjee’s name as yet as a prime suspect Ali said, “There is a conspiracy being hatched against her like in the case of Madan Mitra. But I should remind all and sundry against making such misadventures as Bengal will not take her arrest lying down.”
Curiously, barring Banerjee herself no one till date had suggested her name or for that matter the names of any other leaders in the chit fund scam. It was the Chief Minister who for the first time and repeatedly thereafter was heard in public meetings wondering, “is Kunal (Ghosh) a thief! Is Tumpai (Srinjoy Bose) a thief! Is Madan (Mitra) a thief! Is Mukul (Roy) a thief! Am I a thief!”
Amusingly the first three leaders in her speaking order were currently cooling their heels behind the bar. Reacting sharply to Ali’s sabre-rattling State BJP president Rahul Sinha said, “As a bankrupt outfit the Trinamool Congress has lost its political raison d’être which is why its leaders are making such hollow statements.”
Ali’s speech was a product of “guilty consciousness” Sinha said. “It is not him but a guilty mind speaking because neither the CBI nor any other political leader had ever mentioned Mamata Banerjee’s name.”
CPI(M)’s Sujan Chakrabarty said that “the Trinamool Congress leaders were threatening the CBI because they are themselves feeling threatened with the possible outcome of the probe” adding “no amount of threats would prevent their senior leaders from going to jail.”
Congress’ Abdul Mannan the leader who was primarily responsible for getting a Supreme Court order for a CBI probe said, “This is nothing more than sycophancy because in that party everyone wants to be rewarded. Had he not said so would he have hit the headlines and caught the attention of Didi for whom he is so eager to lay down his life.”