The BJP on Tuesday saw the apex court order directing Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar to make himself available before the CBI as a blow to the Mamata Banerjee-led Government in West Bengal and a moral victory for the investigating agency with the State Chief Minister having left with “egg on her face”.
The party said the Supreme Court direction has put a brake on the histrionics of Banerjee as reflected in her sit-in protest at Kolkata.
Senior BJP leader and Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad welcomed the order and said it’s a blow to the Mamata Government and a victory for the CBI. It also showed that nobody is above the law, including the police commissioner, he added.
The Kolkata Police commissioner will appear before the CBI in Shillong as the environment is not conducive in West Bengal, Prasad said.
The Mamata Banerjee-led government in the state and the BJP are at loggerheads after the CBI tried to question Kolkata’s Police commissioner in connection with chit fund scams. Banerjee has been on a ‘dharna’ since Sunday night over the CBI’s attempts to interrogate the police Chief.
At a separate press conference at party headquarters here, Union minister Smriti Irani said Banerjee’s political histrionics have been brought to a screeching halt by the Supreme Court.
Irani said the Supreme Court had ensured that a free and fair investigation takes place, adding that her party praises and welcomes the court’s order which has put constitutional restraint on “didi ki dadagiri” (Mamata’s intimidation tactics).
Taking a swipe at Banerjee after she claimed a moral victory following the court’s order, Irani said the West Bengal chief minister has been left with egg on her face.
“With egg on her face, to celebrate it as a moral victory is a dichotomy available only to Mamata Banerjee’s realm of politics,” said the BJP leader.
After the Supreme Court’s observations on Tuesday, Banerjee had said the apex court’s direction that no coercive step, including arrest of Kolkata Police chief Rajeev Kumar, will take place during the course of investigation is “our moral victory”.
Irani said the order should be a matter of introspection and concern for Banerjee and alleged the TMC government has become a symbol of anarchy and ‘goondaism’.
Mocking the get-together of different opposition parties leaders at the site of Banerjee’s dharna, Irani said it has become a podium for all “scamsters”, for all those who don’t believe in law and support “state-sponsored anarchy”.
Responding to Banerjee’s claim that the court’s bar on arrest of Kumar was a victory for her, Irani said the CBI never said in its communication to Kumar that it wants to arrest him.
Why is she (Banerjee) “hell bent” on political histrionics, Irani posed, attacking the TMC supremo and asked what is in Kumar’s possession that perturbs Banerjee, prompting her to “save” him.