First turning back midway to the venue of a marquee event, then the apology, and now the action on her “favourites”.
Within three days, chief minister Mamata Banerjee has found herself on unfamiliar terrain as the Messi disaster at the Salt Lake Stadium on Saturday quickly sucked her party and government into a vortex of an unforeseen crisis in the run-up to next year’s Assembly elections.
With growing public anger at her dispensation finding a new outlet and the ramifications of the fiasco around an international icon transcending the state’s borders and damaging her carefully curated “Bengali pride” campaign, Mamata on Tuesday accepted Aroop Biswas’s offer to quit as sports minister, while an inquiry committee set up by her government show-caused director-general of police Rajeev Kumar.
Both Biswas and Kumar are widely viewed as close to the chief minister. Mamata had in 2019 staged an “indefinite” sit-in after CBI officers attempted to question
Kumar, the then Calcutta police commissioner, in connection with the Saradha
scam.
“The situation has forced her to act against her two favourite people. The action on Biswas, who has been given the long rope on several occasions, even in the face of strong resentment from the film industry against him and his brother Swarup, and Kumar, for whom she had taken to the streets to shield him from a central agency’s questioning, has surprised us. At the same time, it proves that she does not spare even those close to her when it comes to governance,” a senior Trinamool leader in Calcutta said.
“This is also unprecedented — action against a serving DGP and a cabinet minister for mismanagement,” the leader added.
Party sources said it was the chief minister who had instructed Biswas to quit as sports minister. She accepted Biswas’s handwritten resignation offer with alacrity and took interim control of the sports department.
As the optics of Biswas and his acolytes depriving ordinary fans of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see the football superstar triggered intense anger and ridicule, the BJP and other Opposition parties amplified the debacle to portray it as a glaring instance of administrative failure.
“Taking action against such senior figures in the party, the police and the administration is unusual for Mamata Banerjee. But she did not hesitate
because the incident directly hurt the narrative of ‘Bengal’s pride’, which has been her strongest political weapon against the BJP,” said political scientist Biswanath Chakraborty.
“Ahead of elections, her decisive move on the Messi mess is likely to help her party address public anger, especially amid widespread speculation over whether
those responsible would be punished or spared,” he added.
Referring to Mamata’s public apology after she had to return without attending the Messi event as the stadium erupted in anger, a Trinamool leader said: “This is probably the first time Mamata Banerjee has had to apologise to the people of Bengal. Never before in her career has she faced a situation where she had to turn her car back and return home without attending a mega public event.”
Even in the wake of protests against the rape and murder of a junior doctor at the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, Mamata had not apologised, although she had removed then police commisssioner Vineet Goyal.
Trinamool spokesperson Arup Chakraborty, however, said the developments underscored Mamata’s commitment to good governance.
“This is what good governance looks like — a minister resigning to ensure an impartial probe and the government not hesitating to show-cause the state’s top cop. On Rajeev Kumar, she did not place personal preference above accountability,” he said.
Trinamool MP Abhishek Banerjee said: “So many people were killed at the Kumbh Mela during this government’s rule and the New Delhi railway station stampede... Within an hour of the incident in Bengal, the Chief Minister apologised... Action is being taken against everyone... That is why the BJP loses, and the Trinamool defeats them.”
The BJP, however, dismissed the actions as eyewash.
“Everything is an eyewash. We do not want resignations — we want the arrest of Aroop Biswas and (minister) Sujit Bose. We want your (Mamata’s) removal,” said the leader of the Opposition, Suvendu Adhikari of the BJP.
Bose had been seen distributing passes for the Messi event among his aides and was perceived to be closely associated with the footballer’s Calcutta outing as he got a massive statue built and had it inaugurated by the Argentine.
Adhikari has moved Calcutta High Court seeking a probe by an independent agency, citing possible economic irregularities in theMessi event.
The Nandigram MLA has demanded an investigation by a sitting judge instead of the committee headed by a retired judge that the government has formed, and objected to the state-appointed special investigation team led by director of securityPiyush Pandey.
BJP and CPM leaders also questioned why Mamata would not take responsibility for the debacle, as she is also in charge of the homedepartment.
“The Messi incident has tarnished Bengal’s image. What is the point of merely show-causing the DGP and the Bidhannagar police commissioner? What about the police minister?” asked CPM leader Sujan Chakraborty.
Congress state president Subhankar Sarkar said: “Police officers have been made scapegoats. We want the arrest of all those involved in the incident that blemished the image of Bengal and football, including ministers.”