HOW MAMATA RESET THE NARRATIVE

THE routine of raids by the Enforcement Directorate or the Central Bureau of Investigation in search of evidence of crime and money laundering isnot shocking.

- SHIKHA MUKERJEE

Not even when such raids are conducted on politically consequential persons from the opposition prior to an election.But it is indeed shocking—if not scandalous—when a sitting chief minister is accused of “gross obstruction” and theft of crucial data, files and evidence by the ED. On January 8, when Mamata Banerjee stormed into a building an ED team was raiding because it housed an office of the Indian Political Action Committee or I-PAC, a consultancy advising the Trinamool Congress, she had her reason ready: “I intervened as the TMC chairperson, not as chief minister. They came to steal my party data. I will expose everything if needed.”

In response, the ED was compelled to issue a denial: “The search is evidence-based and not targeted at any political establishment. No party office has been searched. The search is not linked to any elections, and is part of regular crackdown on money laundering.” The central agency went to the Calcutta High Court and then the Supreme Court, accusing Banerjee of “theft of digital devices and other evidence, and wrongful restraint and confinement of central government officers”.