IANS/Kolkata


The West Bengal government stepped into its third year in office yesterday in the shadow of the Saradha Group chit-fund scam, with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee claiming the state has outperformed the national average in key sectors.
Having moved from one controversy to another, often triggered by actions and comments of party leaders and ministers, including the chief minister, it was far from smooth sailing for the Trinamool Congress government.
Banerjee drew criticism for branding a marginal farmer Shiladitya Chowdhury a Maoist and jailing him for publicly questioning her about fertiliser prices.
She also drew flak for mimicking Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on a national news channel, publicly telling her own security policemen they deserved to be whipped and threatening to slap some photo journalists.
There were police firings in Tehatta of Nadia district and Loba in Birbhum district, killing one person, and injuring several.
Police Tapas Chowdhury was killed during trouble sparked by a college election in Garden Reach area of west Kolkata.
After TV channels aired life footage of the killing, Trinamool Congress politician Mohamed Iqbal was arrested.
Another party leader Sambhunath Kow was arrested for his involvement in the murder of a colleague at Mathpukur in the city’s eastern fringes.
A leader of the Students Federation of India, Sudipta Gupta, died in mysterious circumstances amid allegations that the police had beaten him mercilessly.
The Trinamool Congress students’ wing faced widespread condemnation for vandalising Presidency University in protest against the SFI’s demonstration in Delhi against Banerjee and state Finance Minister Amit Mitra.
The Saradha scam, the biggest financial scandal to hit West Bengal has posed the biggest challenge to the Banerjee government, with reports of closeness of many Trinamool leaders with the tainted group emerging over the past few weeks.
Banerjee has tried to contain the damage by setting up a Rs5bn fund to compensate the depositors, and constituted a commission to probe the scam and find ways to return money to the depositors.
Saradha Group head and suspected scam mastermind Sudipta Sen is also behind bars with his top aides. But only time can tell how much the scandal would impact the regime.
However, Banerjee has gone gaga over her government’s achievements.
She claimed major successes in West Bengal, including “elimination of strikes and poor work culture, extending government support across all sections of the society including women, children and the minority communities.”