The onus is now on the Trinamool Congress MP after this Siliguri-based trader has come forward with a case over what he describes as inciting words directed at the home minister in the wake of the Assembly elections. You could say it puts a finer point on the kind of talk we’re hearing from politicians in the state and where the line is drawn.
Sanjay Kr Singhal was at the Siliguri Cyber Crime Police Station on Friday to file his piece. On Saturday he put it plainly: he felt Banerjee’s way of putting things on the campaign trail was unlawful and had a way of making voters uneasy.
Complaint sparks fresh scrutiny
Singhal points to May 4, when Banerjee was at the helm of some election rallies. He says the MP’s barbs were for Amit Shah and may have put the crowd on edge.
There is a certain unease with the tenor of it all, Singhal says. When an MP of his standing makes such a show of it, you have to wonder how it is that an elected official can be so loose with his words in the middle of a hotly contested race.
What the trader alleges
‘You have an MP up on a car, on a stage, and he is going after the Union home minister – you have to think of the people there and how they must feel,’ Singhal said. ‘I will be shuddering for a while if I let my mind go to what might have been if the TMC had won back power.’
In his estimation, the remarks were over the line. But from the other side, from Banerjee and the TMC, the silence has been deafening so far.
This is how the complainant and the police have put it down on paper:
– A case put in at the Siliguri Cyber Crime station last Friday
– The comments in question came out of the May 4 rallies
– They were aimed squarely at Amit Shah
– The man filing it says he is still left with a chill
– Nothing yet from Abhishek Banerjee or the party
Pattern of legal pushback
It’s not an isolated incident at this station. Just a few days back, a separate plea was made against ex-chief minister Mamata Banerjee. An advocate there put forward that her public jabs at constitutional bodies and some of her talk about a political killing in Bangladesh were not in the best interest of the nation or order in the streets.
Put them together and you see a tussle over accountability and the law of the land when it comes to what is said before and after an election. It also shows a readiness on the part of some to take their grievances to the cyber crime and local police.
Silence from TMC, probes continue
Then there are the other matters. Banerjee is under the microscope of state and central agencies for a host of cases, one of which is looking into some supposed forgeries in the appointment of the Opposition leader in the Assembly.
With no formal reply from the MP or his party, the ball is in the police’s court. It will be up to them to see if the complaint has enough to it to open a proper inquiry.
For anyone in West Bengal, be they a voter or a politician, this is a case in point on the cost of speech and order. The ripples from the campaign are still being felt, and new complaints like this are writing the story in the post-poll period.
