A 10-member delegation of Bengal’s ruling Trinamool Congress sitting on a dharna outside the Delhi headquarters of the Election Commission, were detained by the police today. Visuals from the spot showed the police pushing, pulling and in some cases, physically lifting the MPs, and loading them onto a waiting bus.The MPs, complaining about “misuse of central agencies” by the BJP-led Central government, have demanded that the chiefs of four central investigation agencies — the Enforcement Directorate, Central Bureau of Investigation, Income Tax Department and National Investigation Agency — be changed immediately.
Following their detention, they said they would continue their 24-hour dharna from inside the police station, where some of them were placed in protective custody.
The delegation of MPs was being led by the party’s Rajya Sabha leader Derek O’Brien. Among the protesting MPs were Dola Sen, Sagarika Ghosh, Saket Gokhale and Shantanu Sen. Demanding a “level playing field”, the MPs had promised a 24-hour sit-in outside the Commission’s office.
The police action started an hour into the dharna, when the leaders declined repeated requests to leave after meeting the poll commissioners. Visuals from the spot showed the 63-year-old Mr O’Brien being hauled to the bus by a couple of policemen.
Late in the evening, Mr O’Brien, speaking to reporters from the police station, said, “Our 24-hour dharna will continue. My colleague Mohd Nadimul Haque is a diabetic patient. Dola Sen had hurt her leg and now the injury has gotten worse. But we are here to fight”.
The leaders are alleging that the central agencies are focussing on Opposition leaders ahead of the general election and the motive of the arrests made by the agencies is purely political.
“In a case filed in 2022, an arrest is made in 2024 by the NIA. Law and order is a state subject and the local police should have been informed… Strictly the chiefs of the four central agencies should be changed,” said Trinamool MP Dola Sen.
“The manner in which officials CBI, NIA, ED and Income Tax are acting, they appear to be branch members of BJP. It is making the life of opposition difficult. A member of BJP had a meeting with an NIA official at the latter’s residence,” said Sagarika Ghosh.
Giving examples, she said in on the intervening night of April 5 and 6, raids were conducted without informing local police. “This time, action has been taken by the NIA in a two-year-old case… Homes of women were raided at 3 am in the morning. Officials barged into the houses at 3 am, where they harassed and molested women,” she said.
The MPs, she said, have requested the poll commission to change the chiefs of NIA, ED, CBI and income tax.
The protest comes days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s warning that at a recent election rally in Jalpaiguri that action against corruption will pick up pace after June 4, when the results of the election are to be declared. “Should we not end corruption? Should we not send corrupt people to jail? Should we not get rid of the TMC corruption? This is a Modi’s guarantee,” he had said.
Trinamool Congress chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said today that her party is not scared, even though the BJP is using the agencies for political purpose. “They say Modi ka Guarantee. What is Modi’s guarantee? That he will put everyone in jail after June 4,” she alleged.
Later in the evening, senior Trinamool leader Abhishek Banerjee met Bengal Governor CV Ananda Bose.
“Our delegation went to meet the Election Commission today. The way women MPs were dragged and detained is murder of the republic and the main reason behind this murder is the Election Commission,” he said.
“Why does the Election Commission not remove the NIA Director and NIA SP despite having all the evidence? If West Bengal DG can be changed only on the complaint of BJP leaders, then why are the NIA Director and NIA SP not removed when we are bringing out the facts?” he added.
