New Delhi: Bengalis and Bengal politics have every reason to feel besieged these days. There is a race rather senselessly either to hail Mamata Banerjee as a neo-saviour of Indian democracy or to attack and expose her for her bad governance.
The Mukul Roy saga of trust, luck and betrayal has added only a new flavour. It has degenerated into a new low and shows how politics can end up becoming a dispenser of patronage and selfish means and ego battles.
In the book, ‘Who are the Russians?’, English writer Wright Miller had said: “A Russian can weep at a piece of poetry at one minute and kill an enemy on that same spot a few minutes later”. This applies to the saga of West Bengal’s defection saga this time.
The country has lived through ‘Aya Ram, Gaya Ram’ a variety of politics. But the defection of the father-son duo within weeks of their election to the state assembly sets a new bar. Mukul Roy and his legislator son Subhrangshu’s defection – back to Trinamool Congress – which they called a private limited company – would be referred to in the country’s politics for quite some time.
What provoked this ‘desertion’ move by the ‘Senior Roy’, who was made BJP national vice president, and at this hurried scale is not known. One reason could be his ‘intolerance’ of Suvendu Adhikari, who was junior to him in TMC but now made Leader of the Opposition in the assembly by the BJP.
The second reason of course – as a doting father he wants to ensure a ministerial berth or proper rehabilitation of his son. There is also a pending state government-inspired CID inquiry against Mukul Roy.
Mukul Roy has been named by the CID in a case pertaining to the murder of a Trinamool MLA. His name allegedly cropped up during the course of the investigation. He has also been questioned by the CID and the former Union Minister had secured anticipatory bail from the High Court.
“At least 45 cases are pending against me," Roy had said in December 2020. Both the father-son duo won the just concluded state assembly polls on BJP tickets and thus all eyes are also fixed on their move on whether they would resign their respective seats. Senior BJP leader and a former Governor, Tathagata Roy has called Mukul Roy a ‘Trojan horse’ who has collected details from BJP’s inner circle and has now betrayed the saffron camp.
There is another sort of reaction. Bengal BJP unit chief, Dilip Ghosh, has said, “....We did not gain much from Mukul Roy’s presence in BJP, so I cannot say how much we could suffer as well”.
Russians and Bengalis share one thing in common and that is the dichotomy in behaviour.
On one front, they can be passionate, believe in openness and honesty and frank behaviours while on the other they can be passive, over-cautious and hypocritical. Does communism influence make a person like that? Roy has been anti-Left personally but as goes the belief that societal and environmental influences are also powerful elements. Such a dichotomy in a human being is often forged by history, environment and climate.
The absence of ethics is another factor.
Of course, BJP’s Dilip Ghosh is right when he says, anybody and everybody has the right to go “wherever they want”. But in all there are a few bitter lessons for the saffron party as well. Did the BJP’s ‘gullible leaders’ – a phrase used by Tathagata Roy – put too much egg in the Mukul basket?
"Clearly Mukul Roy was a Trojan Horse. After having been welcomed into the BJP,gained access to its all-India leaders and hobnobbed with state BJP’s gullible leaders and learnt all about the party and its innermost detail, he went back and leaked everything to Mamata," Tathagata Roy tweeted. Mukul Roy had promised to bring out about 100 legislators in Mamata camp in the previous assembly, but this did not happen.
For her part, Mamata Banerjee had herself got a bitter taste of Mukul Roy’s big promise when her Ram Lila rally in Delhi in 2013 had flopped in a big way as not even a quarter of the spacious ground could be filled.
Mukul Roy like a few other Trinamool Congress leaders has different cases – from Sarada to Narada. But the backlog of cases in the court system and often delayed probes are convenient tools to bury the politicised scandals.
At least in Mukul Roy's case, the law must take its own course!
A special Core Committee of Naga lawmakers to meet to fast track peace talks
New Delhi: Now that the heat and dust of West Bengal and Assam elections have settled and there is significant drop in Covid19 cases, the Government of India and other keen stakeholders are putting the long pending Naga peace talks at the table to take things forward.
Sources said a special Core Committee of Nagaland Ministers and legislators is likely to meet on June 19 or 20 either virtually or in person at Kohima to deliberate the way forward on the Naga issue and the peace process.
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| Rio and Namo: Two performers |
The Core Committee headed by Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio as the chairman has Leader of the Oppositionand NPF leader T R Zeliang and Deputy CM and BJP leader Y Patton as two Co-Convenors.
The panel also has members from all important political parties in the state assembly, NDPP headed by Rio himself, BJP and Opposition NPF along with an Independent member.
The centre is more than keen to put the final stage of peace negotiations on the fast track.Sources say, a few months of delay would again bring in 'Manipur elections' by March 2022 as another delay-tactic or at least a reason for the same.
The Home Ministry is also in touch with the Manipur government.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah was reportedly mandated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to do the final rounds of spade works.
In March, Shah had instructed Naga leaders including former Chief Minister T R Zeliang to pass on the message to the NSCN (IM) that they should be "realistic" in facing the challenge and to deal with the issue.
The Centre has made it clear to Nagaland leaders and all stakeholders that the twin contentious issues of Flag and Constitution as demanded by NSCN (IM) Muivah could not be accepted or negotiated.
In 2019, Manipur Chief Minister N Biren had successfully impressed upon Amit Shah to ensure that the states of Manipur, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh have to be consulted as significant numbers of Naga population of different ethnic tribes reside in these three states as well.
The Government is ready to make the peace talks broad-based by getting every key stakeholder in the ecosystem.
The NSCN (IM), the NNPG (of seven groups) and various organisations including Gaon Bura (GB) Federations need to
come together.
In discussions between Shah, Chief Minister Rio and LoP T R Zeliang - one refrain that came up in March is --"no group should be left out".
There are already 11 Naga militant groups. Seven of them operate within the state of Nagaland and have come under one umbrella organisation, NNPG headed by N Kitovi Zhimomi.These groups are keen for an early solution and signing of a pact.
Addressing a students conference on April 25, Chief Minister Rio had said that the Naga political movement went through several phases since the time of the Simon Commission in 1929.
“If the present generation cannot secure any form of solution under the Indian Constitution, then the upcoming generations would be left to seek a solution," he had said.
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