Kolkata: Over a decade has handed and but, a ebook launched by a former civil servant-turned-legislator in 2012 continues to hang-out West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her occasion, the Trinamool Congress (TMC).
The ebook, ‘Mamata Banerjee as I’ve identified her’, was written by former IAS officer and two-term MLA Dipak Kumar Ghosh who peppered it with copies of a number of Proper to Info (RTI) functions, information clippings and official correspondence for substantiating claims he made in regards to the TMC supremo.
The ebook resurfaced final week amid a heated change between the Congress and the TMC. On the centre of this change was Bengal Congress spokesperson Kaustav Bagchi who cited the ebook to counter the Trinamool authorities throughout a TV information debate. Bagchi was arrested for making “derogatory remarks” in opposition to the CM however launched on bail the identical day.
Nonetheless, this was not the primary time the ebook by Dipak Kumar Ghosh was cited by Mamata’s political adversaries to focus on the three-time chief minister. Within the run-up to the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, Bharatiya Janata Social gathering (BJP) chief after which candidate from Kolkata South, Tathagata Roy, raked up the identical ebook in response to a remark Mamata made in opposition to then prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi whereas on the marketing campaign path.
On claims made within the ebook, TMC spokesperson Jay Prakash Majumdar informed ThePrint Tuesday that it lacks credible proof and was written with the intention to malign. “The West Bengal authorities believes in freedom of speech, and thus the ebook hasn’t been banned as a result of the claims in it are baseless,” he asserted.
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Claims Ghosh makes about Mamata
Although Ghosh has personally levelled allegations in opposition to Mamata, costs made within the ebook stay unsubstantiated, aside from citations of reports clippings and RTI functions filed by the writer.
As an IAS officer, Ghosh was a part of the West Bengal administration for 37 years previous to his two-year stint with the Congress adopted by one other 13 years with the TMC. In his 21-chapter ebook, he wrote about his affiliation with Mamata, her non-public life, and her working model and insurance policies each as Union minister and later chief minister of West Bengal.
Ghosh claims the TMC chief was munching on candies and sandwiches throughout her 25-day starvation strike in 2006 to protest ‘forcible’ land acquisition in Singur for the Tata Nano plant.
“What did Mamata do all these document days of quick? She had some lemon water, glucose water and many others. through the first 2/3 days. However, after Sonali (former TMC MLA Sonali Guha) vanished from the scene, she would get 4/5 rooster/cheese sandwiches and fish fingers, secretly introduced by her P.A. Gautam Basu — the poor fellow died in 2008 — from the Dalhousie Institute at Jhowtala courtesy Derek O’Brien for her dinner,” he writes.
Ghosh additionally accuses her of taking undue benefit of the house division portfolio in 2012.
He writes, “When one among her nephews was arrested for beating up a visitors police officer, cupboard minister Firhad Hakim ordered the fast launch of the nephew of the Chief Minister. In a while, when the press and the TV channels turned very lively, he was rearrested. Such bailable sections of the IPC have been talked about by the police that the judicial Justice of the Peace needed to launch him on bail the identical day.”
In one other occasion, Ghosh claims Mamata “didn’t think about benefit, expertise and occasion loyalty” and “acted whimsically” when forming her first cupboard in 2011.
“For instance, how might the federal government ship an official letter to late Kashinath Mishra, the Bankura MLA. He went to Raj Bhavan. However, on the final second, he was informed that rather than him Shyamapada Mukherjee of Bishnupur has been made a minister. Kashi babu was a veteran legislator. He had joined the occasion on the very starting. Kashi babu broke down whereas talking to this author,” writes Ghosh.
Ghosh even remembers the time he contested meeting polls in 2006 on a TMC ticket from the coveted Jadavpur seat however misplaced to former CM and CPI(M) veteran Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. In accordance with Ghosh, he wished to give up politics and mentioned it with Mamata who informed him to stay with the occasion and contest the Lok Sabha polls from Jadavpur once more in 2009.
Nonetheless, Ghosh claims that the occasion deserted him in 2009 and fielded Kabir Suman from Jadavpur. “She (Mamata) cheated him (writer of the ebook) after Singur and Nandigram when Kabir Suman together with his guitar and soul-stirring songs had turn into very near her and her former well-wishers like Mahasweta Devi had strongly really helpful that Suman be given the Jadavpur seat,” he writes.
‘If I begin distributing this ebook…’
As he stepped out of the Bankshall Courtroom in Kolkata after being granted conditional bail Saturday night, 32-year-old advocate Kaustav Bagchi quipped, “I’ll take away the chief minister’s sleep. I’ll tonsure my head and gained’t develop hair until the time I don’t dethrone the chief minister.”
9 hours earlier, a group of Kolkata Police landed on the Barrackpore residence of the Congress spokesperson in reference to a grievance filed in opposition to him by TMC supporter Sumit Singh at Burtolla police station. In his assertion, the complainant accused Bagchi of constructing “derogatory remarks” in opposition to Mamata throughout a TV information debate.
Bagchi was booked underneath Sections 120B (felony conspiracy), 153 (provocation with intent to inflicting riot), 504 (intentional insult with intent to impress breach of peace), 505 (act that induces any individual to commit offence in opposition to the state or in opposition to public tranquility), 506 (felony intimidation), 509 (insult modesty of lady) and 354A (sexual harassment) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
Bagchi’s remarks have been in response to a press release Mamata made shortly after TMC misplaced Sagardighi seat to the Congress in a bypoll.
Reacting to West Bengal Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury’s statements to the media on his occasion bagging a seat which the Trinamool was successful since 2011, Mamata had stated on 2 March, “He (Chowdhury) is making huge statements as we speak. If I ask him about his daughter’s suicide, will he be capable to reply?”
Bagchi, when requested to touch upon Banerjee’s remarks through the TV information debate, cited the booklet by Ghosh on the TMC chief’s life. “If I begin distributing this ebook in localities, Mamata Banerjee gained’t be capable to present her face at house. Her private life, her life earlier than marriage, how low she will be able to stoop shall be clear for the individuals of Bengal,” the Congress spokesperson had stated.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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