Jaitley’s misplaced anger on CBI over suspects
The assault by the centre on CBI has continued unabated. By dismissing Alok Verma from the post of Chief, the government had pointed out the limits to the premier investigating agency that cannot be crossed. For the government, it pretended as if it was an existential crisis to remove Verma from the post. Government wasn’t too happy with CBI being autonomous. If the agency had stepped ahead on Rafale investigation, the whole government would have been in trouble along with Modi. Many would have landed in jail.
After having dismissed the head of CBI, do other members even pose a challenge? Now the central government is eyeing the second line officers in CBI. Recently, CBI conducted a very important raid. It lodged an FIR against ICICI and Videocon Bank loan issue on Chanda Kochhar, Deepak Kochhar, Venugopal Dhoot and others. CBI officer Sudhanshu Dhar Misra is leading the case. He not only discovered this misdoing when he was the SP of Banking and Securities Fraud Cell, but also lodged an FIR against Chanda Kochhar without coming under anybody’s influence. CBI has put together a lot of documents to bolster it claims, since raids cannot be conducted without an FIR. The current culprits are corporates and hence the bankers have exercised maximum caution.
CBI staffers have seen what transpired with Alok Verma. Government has placed officers suitable to its agenda inside the CBI office. Now despite all this, if an FIR has been drawn up, it does mean the case is serious enough. If the witnesses in the case are not strong enough, they will be let off by the courts when the time comes. Soon as CBI prepared an FIR, Jaitley who had travelled abroad for treatment, criticized CBI right from there.
He said CBI was getting too ‘adventurous’ by projecting oneself as a hero. "There is a fundamental difference between investigative adventurism and professional investigation. Investigative adventurism involves casting the net too wide including people with no mens rea or even having a common intention to commit an offence, relying on presumptions and surmises with no legally admissible evidence. Adventurism leads to media leaks, ruins reputations and eventually invites strictures and not convictions. In the process, the targets are ruined because of harassment, loss of reputation and financial costs. It costs people their career," wrote Jaitely who is in the US for his treatment. Soon after his tweet, Sudhanshu Dhar was transferred proving this transfer was made owing to political pressure. This is another proof to show the depths CBI has been plumbing in the recent times.
What message is Jaitley trying to convey to CBI? Finance minister is also responsible if a bank overlooks the lending policy. Jaitley should have welcomed this decision by the CBI, instead of chiding the officers. What does he mean when he uses ‘adventurism’ as a message? Should the CBI not show its professionalism? Should the officers liaison with the cheating banks and maintain their balance? Even if the CBI officers had made a mistake, what was the need for Jaitley to hurriedly send out a tweet even when he was away in the US?
Central Government used the same CBI to attack the opposition party leaders, costing the agency its reputation. Now when CBI does things on its own, it is being termed as adventurism and whatnot. He has revealed himself before the media by openly tweeting like this. He seems to be deeply affected by CBI’s work. What is the need for CBI if it has to seek the permission of the centre before carrying out raids? The main nerve of CBI has already been severed. Now the other organs are also being cut. The situation now is that CBI cannot lodge an independent FIR or conduct raids even if the records suggest so. CBI is now limited to only ‘fix’ the opposition party leaders. Instead of spending lakhs and crores to maintain a defunct agency, it is better to shut shop forever.
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Huge turnout amidst SIR shadow caps ballistic battle for Bengal
Kolkata (PTI): The West Bengal assembly polls ended on Wednesday with what the election watchdog said was the state's highest-ever voter turnout of 92.84 per cent, leading to mouth-watering anticipation ahead of the announcement of results on Monday as both contenders sounded sanguine about their victory prospects.
Wednesday's second phase saw a 92.48 per cent turnout. The concluding phase covering 142 constituencies in south Bengal appears poised to match the first phase's record voter participation of 93.19 per cent by the time final numbers are collated.
The figures put the combined poll percentage over the two-phases at 92.84 per cent. The first phase of polling was held on April 23.
"This is the highest-ever recorded poll participation since Independence in West Bengal," it said.
The capital Kolkata recorded a turnout of 88.59 per cent, with Purba Bardhaman district topping the charts at 93.78 per cent.
The scale of participation sent out an overarching political message — practically every single eligible voter in the state felt personally invested in the electoral process and its outcome. They turned out in numbers large enough to make every narrative contested and every claim of momentum politically loaded. If the first phase tested whether the BJP could retain its north Bengal citadel, the second and final round was always the real battle for the saffron party on whether it could breach the ruling TMC’s southern fortress of Kolkata, Howrah, Hooghly, Nadia, North and South 24 Parganas and Purba Bardhaman.
At the centre of the larger political fight stood Bhabanipur, no longer merely a south Kolkata constituency but Banerjee’s political refuge, her emotional home turf and the BJP’s chosen psychological battlefield.
Banerjee, 71, seeking a fourth consecutive term after 15 years in power, faced Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari in a prestige battle widely seen as a symbolic rematch of Nandigram, where Adhikari had defeated her in 2021 after crossing over from the TMC to the BJP.
Five years later, the duel shifted to Banerjee’s own bastion. For the TMC, retaining Bhabanipur is about protecting the chief minister’s authority in her own backyard. For the BJP, breaching it would puncture the aura of invincibility around Bengal’s most powerful political figure.
The constituency witnessed nearly 87 per cent polling, sharply up from around 61 per cent in the 2021 assembly polls and 57 per cent in the bypoll that brought Banerjee back to the House.
Banerjee – who usually votes later in the day and prefers staying indoors on the day of polls – broke convention and hit the ground before 8 am, moving through Chetla, Padmapukur and Chakraberia areas following complaints of alleged intimidation of local TMC leaders.
As she sat outside a booth amid heavy deployment of central forces, Adhikari arrived there and declared, "I will not allow any hooliganism." He opposed Banerjee moving around with "50-60 people" with her.
Banerjee accused the BJP of trying to "rig" the election by using central forces, election observers and officials.
"The BJP wants to rig this election. Polls in Bengal are usually peaceful. Is there a goonda raj here?" she said, alleging intimidation of TMC polling agents and late-night visits by CRPF personnel to party workers’ homes.
"The atrocities by the central forces are unprecedented. What is happening is not at all free and fair polls. But despite all this, we have full faith that we will win," she said after casting her vote.
Adhikari dismissed the charges as "frustration", claiming Banerjee had realised that "not a single vote was coming her way".
Tension flared again in Kalighat when Adhikari visited another booth, and TMC workers raised slogans against him. Police resorted to a lathi-charge to disperse the crowd as BJP supporters answered with counter-slogans. Reports of sporadic tension were also received from some other areas amid sights of long queues at polling stations, booth-level flare-ups, and political bickering.
In Kolkata's Entally, BJP candidate Priyanka Tibrewal alleged that the TMC's polling agents tried to assault her after she objected to overcrowding inside a booth and a lack of voter privacy.
In Panihati, BJP candidate and the R G Kar victim's mother, Ratna Debnath, faced protests, while her party colleague in Basanti, Bikash Sardar, alleged that "200 to 250 TMC goons" attacked his vehicle and assaulted his driver.
The TMC, meanwhile, accused the central forces of exercising brute force on the general voters at Falta's Belsingha village, especially women, who were beaten up during a move to disperse a crowd from near a polling station.The party also alleged CAPF high-handedness on women and a four-year-old child at Sathachhia in Howrah and on villagers at Ausgram in Purba Bardhaman district.
"In the name of ensuring security, central force jawans are not sparing even women who were brutally lathi-charged. TMC protests this highhandedness of the male jawans who exercised brute force on unarmed villagers. We draw the EC's attention to such illegal actions of the CAPF and ask the poll body to issue cease-and-desist orders against such use of force. We believe, people of Bengal will respond to this on EVMs," Anirban Banerjee, party spokesperson, said.
The BJP alleged that in several polling stations in Falta, the option to vote for the party was blocked using a tape over EVM poll buttons, and demanded repolls in the affected booths.
The state’s Chief Electoral Officer Manoj Agarwal said repolling was likely to be announced in booths where EVMs were found tampered with. However, the order will only be issued after authorities receive reports from the district election officer or election observers regarding allegations of EVM tampering, such as using tapes or a blot of ink, he said.
