Former Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s defeat in the recent assembly election appears to have turned her loyal partymen into stern critics. Leaders who were silent during the events – be it corruption or law and order issues – are now speaking up. And of all the criticisms directed at her, the biggest appears to be the rape murder of the young doctor at Kolkata’s RG Kar hospital, which had made women hit the streets of Kolkata in protest.
The latest leader to speak up is Trinamool Congress’s Rajya Sabha MP Sukhendu Shekhar Roy, who, among other things, had predicted a disintegration of the party.
In an exclusive interview with NDTV, Roy said, “The Trinamool Congress will be finished in a few days. Even in national politics, the party has lost its reliability. No party will join hands with Trinamool now”.
Regarding the RG Kar murder, he said, “The way the RG Kar incident was handled — it was wrong. There was clear attempt to shield the culprits. The police were used for that”.
The RG Kar issue and the subsequent protests, he said, gave him the first indication that the “people’s sentiments were against the party”.
“The party failed to understand that,” he added. Moreover, the “mountain of corruption the party leaders have made is unthinkable, and Mamata Banerjee failed to control that,” he said.
The former Chief Minister, he added, had alienated people with her remarks on the Hindu religion. “What Mamata said about Hindu dharam, calling it ‘Ganda Dharam’ or ‘the community remarks’ were wrong. It goes against our political ethos,” he added.
With all this, the defeat, he indicated, was inevitable and “every leader from grassroot to the top should accept accountability” for it.
The way to it, though, he indicated, was paved by I-PAC, the organisation started by election strategist-turned politician Prashant Kishor.
I-PAC was hired to craft the party’s campaign by party number two, Trinamool’s Rajya Sabha MP Abhishek Banerjee, whose rise in the party was opposed by many. There was much resistance from the party’s older generation when I-PAC was hired in 2018 but the sweeping victory of the party in 2021 had silenced the critics. This time though, the comments have been vehement. Roy said “I-PAC was given red carpet to destroy the party”.
From arrogance to corruption, a host of allegations have been levelled at I-PAC. It was I-PAC, many leaders said, which had made Mamata Banerjee inaccessible. There have also been allegations that I-PAC was selling party posts for cash.
Trinamool MP Kakoli Ghosh, who quit all party posts, had levelled similar allegations in her resignation letter. “If a democratic system within a party has been overshadowed by an undemocratic, murky influence, then I don’t think it is good for the ideals and the heritage of a party,” she wrote about I-PAC.
The letter also cited corruption in public distribution system, appointment of teachers, irregularities in governance and finance and the death of the death of the doctor in Kolkata’s RG Kar hospital and allegations of a cover-up that, she wrote, has “sparked dissatisfaction and mistrust among the people”. “I too have felt the moral sting,” she wrote.
“Mamata Banerjee overlooked all corruption. And both Mamata and Abhishek Banerjee are responsible for such result,” said Trinamool’s former minister Partha Chatterjee told NDTV in an exclusive interview.
The party, added its former general secretary, had got “detached from the masses”.
The Trinamool has now set up a five-member committee to act against those who offer public criticism. Party spokesperson Riju Dutta has been suspended for six years.