In a big embarrassment for Mamata Banerjee and her ruling Trinamool Congress, MP and historian Sugato Bose on Sunday contradicted her established line on the arrest of Transport Minister Madan Mitra by the CBI in the Saradha chit fund case.
Bose, a grandnephew of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, told mediapersons that he had full faith in the judiciary and “whatever steps the judiciary will take after perusing the evidences will be right.” When asked to comment on the arrest of Mitra for his alleged connection with the multi-crore ponzi fund scam, Bose said no one had the right to misappropriate the hard earned money of the poorest of the poor people.
“I do not have the evidences with me right now and I cannot tell you for sure. Only the court can form an opinion after perusing the evidences. But I can tell you that if anyone is associated with such scams then one must be arrested and one’s social standing should not come in the way of such actions,” Bose, who was also critical of the State Government’s decision to publish Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s photographs alongside Swami Vivekananda and Netaji, said.
The Chief Minister and her whole band of party MPs had unleashed a war against the Narendra Modi Government for its alleged ploy to demolish the Trinamool Congress by setting the CBI against it.
Reacting to reports that the Government was publishing photographs of the Chief Minister flanked on two sides by Swami Vivekananda and Netaji Bose, said he did not like the idea as “great men like Vivekananda and Bose formed a class of their own and no political leader of the modern era could or should be equated with them.”
The photograph controversy was interpreted by the political pundits against the backdrop of Banerjee’s falling credentials post-Saradha scam. The experts are of the opinion that placing Banerjee with the other two greats in one picture frame was an attempt to give an image makeover to the Chief Minister.
The State Government was introducing a publicity poster with photographs of Netaji and Swami Vivekananda flanking the Chief Minister. Welcoming Bose’s statements, BJP State president Rahul Sinha said, “though a scholar like him should have made such statement earlier we welcome him for taking the right stand now. He should be congratulated for understanding the miseries of the people affected by the Saradha scam.”
On the photograph controversy, Sinha said both Swami Vivekananda and Netaji were international personalities who transgressed their ages and “no politician of this age should be equated with them.” He said, “I welcome Mr Bose for taking such a bold stand and making a courageous statement.”