Attacks on ED and NIA in Bengal seems to have TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee’s approval. But, why?

Mamata Banerjee rose through the ranks as a street fighter during the rule of the Left regime. Aggression has been her hallmark for decades

Anyone with even a cursory interest in national affairs can’t help but wonder why the central government’s law enforcement agencies like the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the National Investigation Agency (NIA) invariably face physical resistance when they conduct raids in West Bengal to arrest accused persons with links to the ruling Trinamool Congress, whereas even the arrest of a sitting Chief Minister in Delhi or an ex-CM in Jharkhand passes off peacefully without any breakdown in law and order.

Just like West Bengal, Delhi and Jharkhand are also opposition-ruled. But central agencies had no difficulties whatsoever arresting either a serving CM, Arvind Kejriwal, or ex-CM Hemant Soren, from their official residences in Delhi and Ranchi, respectively. No doubt, there were demonstrations and protests, including sloganeering, but ED and CBI teams were not physically attacked by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) or Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) cadres.

There was no breach of peace because the AAP and the JMM, although seething with anger, did not take the law into their own hands. In sharp contrast, there were mob attacks on central agencies’ personnel in West Bengal’s Sandeshkhali in January and in Bhupatinagar this month during raids to nab middle and low ranking Trinamool Congress functionaries on money laundering and bomb-making charges. The assault made national headlines and triggered a war of words between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

Central Agencies Faced Resistance

The NIA’s police complaint after the Bhupatinagar face-off specifically stated that the “local population consisting of women and men resisted, obstructed and attacked the NIA team and manhandled them. The mob also attacked the NIA vehicle and damaged the windshield”. In Sandeshkhali, the accused had got wind of the operation and a 1000-strong mob was apparently lying in wait for the ED team, underlining the solid preparations before the confrontation.

The Bharatiya Janata Party equates the attacks on central agencies with an attack on the Indian Constitution itself. It holds Mamata personally and directly responsible for the violence, citing the CM’s public defence of Trinamool Congress cadres in the dock, and arguing that workers wouldn’t have dared to take on NIA and ED unless they were assured that the party and supreme leader would stand by them and protect them.

Criticism of Mamata is bang-on. It holds water -- makes perfect sense to me. Mamata -- whose career graph is radically different from Kejriwal’s and Soren’s – does believe in disruption and confrontation for political consolidation when fighting a powerful adversary. She rose through the ranks as a street fighter during the rule of the Left regime. Aggression has been her hallmark for decades. Her innings in politics shows how she has been always strong and confident enough to give as good as she got.

Mamata’s combative approach is reflected today in Trinamool Congress cadres taking on central agencies headlong. And her blessings is evident from the slogan she has personally coined – NIA aur CBI, BJP ke do bhai -- to justify popular resistance to raids by central agencies, which Mamata’s says are being conducted at the BJP’s behest to corner the opposition before the Lok Sabha elections.

Mamata’s History of Confrontations

It’s worth remembering that before Trinamool Congress captured power in West Bengal in 2011, Mamata personally led her cadres during multiple confrontations with the Left government’s police force. Importantly, she has been at the receiving end of police violence and has been hospitalised quite a few times for treatment of injuries inflicted by the men in uniform. Time and again she was dragged by the hair and thrown into police vans.

All this explains her no-holds-barred backing today for party workers locking horns with central agencies with her moral support. Without her backing, there is no question of such well organised resistance to the raids and search operations of central agencies. The sizeable presence of women during the face-offs is proof, if proof was needed, of Mamata being the guiding spirit of the defiance and pushback which distinguishes West Bengal from other opposition-ruled states.

Taking on Delhi, both figuratively and literally, has always paid rich political and electoral dividends in Bengal. Before independence, Subhash Chandra Bose became Netaji, or The Leader, by locking horns with Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru. And for 34 long years, from 1977 to 2011, the communists ensconced in Writer’s Building and Alimuddin Street -- the state secretariat and Communist Party of India (Marxist) headquarters in Kolkata -- crossed swords with Delhi’s powers that be. The same spirit is now manifested in Trinamool Congress cadres hand-to-hand combat with central agencies in Sandeshkhali and Bhupatinagar.

(SNM Abdi is an independent journalist specialising in India’s foreign policy and domestic politics.)

Views are personal, and do not represent the stance of this publication.