Document 6572231

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CALCUTTA SATURDAY 18 OCTOBER 2014 Rs 3.00
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www.telegraphindia.com
Mamata hears blast, at last
PRANESH SARKAR,
PRONAB MONDALAND
ARNAB GANGULY
Oct. 17: Left defenceless by
the discovery of a cache of
bombs that Bengal police
overlooked, chief minister
Mamata Banerjee today
said “terrorists are terrorists” and declared that “we
do not have any problems
with the NIA” which is probing the Burdwan blast.
Hours before the chief minister broke her silence on the
blast, the first hint of a damage-control bid came when it
emerged that the state government was thinking of acting
against the police team that
missed the 39 bombs found by
central agencies yesterday.
“Terrorists are terrorists.
They do not belong to any religion. Ours is a desh bhakt (patriotic) party. We do not have
any problems with the NIA
(National
Investigation
Agency),” Mamata told a news
conference at the Trinamul
Congress headquarters.
Rarely before has Mamata
felt the need to reaffirm in
public her party’s patriotism.
But rarely before has the
chief minister come under
pressure from multiple flanks
as is the case now. The Burdwan blast case is snowballing,
the BJP is pummelling her
with one uncomfortable question after the other and matters have come to such a head
that cautionary voices are rising in Bangladesh — a possible target of the bombs being
made on Bengal’s soil.
A mellow Mamata today
said “Bangladesh is our brother” amid reports that Dhaka is
extremely concerned about alleged links between a politician in Bengal and extremist
elements.
The chief minister insisted
that she never opposed a probe
by the NIA and the media had
construed her views on Centre-state relationship as a comment on the central agency.
“We want the Centre to
consult us. Consult na kore insult korbe eta hoy na (Not consulting means insulting us,
this cannot happen). They
have to work with the local administration. Our officers did
a very good job. We will give
full cooperation to the NIA,”
Mamata said.
The offer of cooperation is
Mamata at the news
conference. (Bibhash Lodh)
a dramatic departure from
what happened in Burdwan in
the immediate aftermath of
the blast on October 2. On one
pretext or the other, central officers were allegedly not allowed access to the site and
seized bombs were detonated
in haste.
A day after the Centre took
the rare step of announcing
on its own an NIA probe into
the Burdwan blast, Mamata
had posted on Facebook a
statement that dwelt on Centre-state relations.
No direct reference was
made to the NIA but the
timing was striking. “Nowadays, the Central Government
tends to frequently and unnecessarily interfere in state matters…” the chief minister had
posted.
A senior minister said this
evening: “It is obvious that she
realises the gravity of the situation. There is not much that
she can say in her defence. So,
she attempted to give her side
of the story without blaming
others.”
Not that she did not blame
anyone. The chief minister said central agencies had failed
to police the border properly,
suggesting that she cannot be
held responsible for terror
modules sneaking into Bengal.
State BJP president Rahul
Sinha said tonight: “She broke
her silence by saying that she
had no problem with the NIA
probe. But why was she silent
so long? She is trying to cover
up the mishandling of the
Burdwan blast.”
Police rot
Earlier, a senior Bengal police
officer told The Telegraph
that departmental proceedings would be initiated against
the team that had searched
Rezaul Karim’s house in Burd-
INBRIEF
Windies call off tour
■The West Indies team have
abandoned their tour of
India following an internal
dispute over payments, the
BCCI has said.
SPORT
Food prize
■ India-born Mexican scientist Sanjaya Rajaram has
been awarded the World
Food Prize 2014.
NATION P8
I’ve discovered
I don’t suck at
being a dad
BRAD PITT
HUMOUR
The following is a joke, modelled on the
rhyming dialogues of the Satyajit Ray movie
Hirak Rajar Deshe, that some officials in Bengal
have been forwarding to each other in the past
few days. It proves that despite all the gloom,
Bengal still enjoys a good laugh — true to the 19th-century poet Ishwar Gupta’s
words: “Eto bhanga Bangadesh, tobu range bhara (So fragmented is Bengal, yet
so full of fun).” An edited version of the joke and its translation follows:
PORBO 1
thekey namta!
● Kutirey boshey boma banano-o toh
● Ki idea!! Ey bochhor kon *****
shilpo — thik kina Ostromontri?
thyakachchhey tor Bangasree!
● Thik, thik!
EPISODE 3
● I say, researcher, why is it taking
so long to make the bombs?
● With all due respect, My Queen, I’m
very sorry. This is foreign technology!
● What then is the way, Minister of
Weaponry? A crash course?
● Outsource instead. Invite the Jamaat and
treat them as your son-in-law; that would
bring down the Maoists and Marxists
from calculus to the multiplication tables!
● What an idea!! Which (expletive) can
stop you from becoming a Bangasree
awardee this year!
EPISODE 1
● Making bombs sitting in a cottage too
is an industry — isn’t that so, Minister
of Weaponry?
● Right, right!
PORBO 2
● Boli ey gobeshok, tomar toh MP
hobar khoob shaukh?
● Ami toh nogonyo, apni nominate
korley dhonyo!
● Banao tobey ekkhan exclusive,
improvised device explosive!
EPISODE 2
● You there, researcher, you seem
to be longing to become an MP?
● I am insignificant, if you nominate
me I shall be blessed!
● Then make an exclusive, improvised
explosive device!
PORBO 4
● Ostromontri bomar toh stock gyalo
ghetey?
● Agyey Ranima, tajagulo jey gyalo phetey!
● Taholey? Notun Jamaati daktey hobey
naki?
● Ettu wait Maharani, Flipkart-ey dekhi.
PORBO 3
● Boli gobeshok, boma banatey eto
kyano deri?
EPISODE 4
● Minister of Weaponry, so the stock
of bombs is ruined?
● With all due respect, My Queen, the
live ones exploded!
● Then? Do we need to call new
Jamaat activists?
● Wait a little, O Great Queen, let me
check on Flipkart.
● Egyey Ranima, I’m very sorry.
Ey jey Biliti karigori!
● Ta’ley upaay Ostromontri? Crash course?
● Boroncho korey din outsource. Rajyey
Jamaat-ke dekey korey rakhun jamata,
Mao to Maku shape bodley calculus
STATUTORY
WARNING
Those who circulate such heretical jokes, be warned. “Ke ki korchhe,
ke ki bolchhe, sab amaar kaachhe khobor thake (who is doing what,
who is saying what, I have every information),” chief minister
Mamata Banerjee said on Friday at Trinamul Bhavan
below the rank of superintendent of police and deputy commissioner of police was done
by Ghosh. Yardsticks such as
efficiency and professionalism were thrown out of the
window and loyalty became
the sole factor,” said a retired
IPS officer.
The system received a
fresh lease of life when Trinamul came to power, with
Mukul Roy handling the police affairs. Compounding the
problem was the chief minister’s tendency to interact directly with officers on the
ground, which rendered the
chain of command redundant.
The upshot: the morale of
the police force has hit an alltime low, according to several
officers.
Worse, many officers feel
that the best course of action
is to “let sleeping dogs lie” — a
policy that draws least attention to themselves. Even if
some officers want to act, they
fear that vote-bank politics
will ensure that they will be
asked to go slow or look the
other way.
The worst example of
working with blinkers on was
in sight at the house with the
bombs on Burdwan’s Badshahi Road.
In power, Modi discovers virtues of treaties
Bail for Jaya
with rider
■ The Supreme Court has
granted bail to Jayalalithaa
and suspended her four-year
sentence but set unprecedented conditions so she
could not “drag” her appeal
against her conviction.
NATION P6
wan and returned emptyhanded on October 8. In the
same house, the NIA and the
NSG had yesterday found 39
home-made bombs.
The move to punish the officers is being seen as an attempt to minimise the embarrassment of the state administration.
“It is undoubtedly an embarrassment when the ruling
establishment was claiming
that the state police was good
enough to carry out the investigation into the incident. Departmental proceedings will
be initiated against those who
had carried out the search on
October 8. The process has
started today,” the officer said.
Four personnel from the
CID, led by an inspector, and a
team from Burdwan police, led
by a DSP, had searched the
house after it was revealed
that one of the prime accused
in the October 2 blast had been
staying there.
“All those policemen who
had conducted the search in
the house are responsible because it was their duty to scan
the house properly. The gravity of the incident was clear by
then,” the senior officer said.
Departmental proceedings
usually start with a showcause notice. If the reply is unsatisfactory, suspension or
compulsory waiting is activated and a detailed investigation
starts.
But some police officers
equated the penal proceedings
to treating the symptom instead of the disease. They said
that other than the wellknown problem of lack of professional expertise in searching for explosives, the state
force is a victim of the rot that
had set in long ago.
“The ruling parties in Bengal always tried to use the police force as a weapon against
rivals. The party in power has
been interfering in matters
like recruitment and transfer
of officials, which over the
years have weakened the
force,” said an officer.
The rot struck deep roots
during the tenure of former
chief minister Jyoti Basu, particularly after the formation of
the third Left Front government in 1987, when his then
confidential assistant Joykrishna Ghosh used to run the
police show.
“Posting and transfers
IN A LAND
BLESSED WITH
Look who has a black eye
and information can’t be disclosed unless a
wrong-doing is found on the basis of an incomeNew Delhi, Oct. 17: The Narendra Modi governtax complaint,” the Modi government said.
ment today urged the Supreme Court not to insist
Senior lawyer Ram Jethmalani, on whose plea
on disclosing the identity of Indians who had
the court had set up a special investigation team,
parked black money abroad, more or less echoing
termed it as a “culprits’ affidavit” while the Conthe UPA and swallowing the barbs the BJP had
gress weighed in by wondering what Modi would
hurled at the Manmohan Singh government.
do if someone filed a “cheating” case for
The new government has said that public dis“hypocrisy”.
closure of the names would affect India’s finanThe furore compelled finance minister Arun
cial and diplomatic relations with several counJaitley to suggest that the names could be reArun Jaitley
tries, including the US.
vealed only when charges were filed in a court.
The controversy brought to the fore the risk
“Is the present NDA government led by Modi in
parties run while levelling reckless charges when in Opposiany way reluctant to make some names public? Certainly not.
tion, unmindful of the responsibilities, such as upholding
We have no difficulty in making names public. But they can
the law, that lie ahead when they assume power.
be made public only in accordance with due process of law.
The UPA had disclosed the names of certain individuals
“And the due process of law has been constrained by
but the Modi government has taken the stand that it would
DTAA (Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement) which was
affect confidentiality agreements.
entered into between India and Germany when the Congress
“An immediate fallout would be that the Government of
Party was in power on June 19, 1995,” he told reporters.
India would not be able to sign the proposed inter-GovernJaitley said the “names can only be made public once
mental Agreement (IGA) with the United States of America
after investigation, there are disclosures made to court, that
for the purposes of automatic exchange of information,” the
is when charges are filed. Till such time when the investigaCentre said.
tions are on, merely for reasons of propaganda, they can’t be
The government said the agreement needed to be signed
made public.”
by December. Failure to do so will impose tax liabilities on InLawyer and former UPA minister Salman Khurshid said
dian financial institutions, it added and warned of a finanthe NDA government should either “scrap” the agreements
cial collapse as all international trade transactions are done
with other nations in “national interest” over not disclosing
in US dollars. The court has listed the matter for October 28.
black money details or “apologise” for attacking the UPA gov“The right to privacy is an integral part of right to life
ernment.
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150
Nipped in
the Mukul
OUR SPECIAL
CORRESPONDENT
■ Shankudeb Panda has been
removed from the helm of the
Trinamul students’ wing.
■ Soumitra Khan no longer
heads Trinamul’s youth wing.
■ Ministers Subrata Mukherjee and Partha Chatterjee will
be official spokespersons for the
party in the state.
■ Abhishek Banerjee will lead
the unified all-India Trinamul
Yuva and Trinamul Youth
Congress.
No prizes for guessing who
is missing from the roll call.
Mukul Roy and his aides
were the biggest losers and
Mamata’s nephew the winner
in the organisational changes
signalled internally by Mamata Banerjee on Friday.
“This was waiting to happen. Abhishek will now head
the biggest frontal organisation in the party. Didi made it
clear that Abhishek is now the
Number Two in the party,”
said a Trinamul source.
The formal coronation of
Abhishek, whose testy ties
with Mukul is an open secret
in Trinamul, as the party’s
new face had taken place in
New Delhi yesterday.
Although Mukul was the
only speaker other than Mamata at today’s closed-door meeting at Trinamul Bhavan, many seized upon what they felt
were telltale signs that showed
he no longer held a position of
pre-eminence in the party.
“Mukul-da was speaking
on the electoral roll revision
when the photographers were
allowed to come in. There was
chaos for some time and
Mukul-da looked helpless,”
Mukul Roy at the news
conference. (Bibhash Lodh)
said an MLA, portraying the
episode as a sign of the undeclared shift of fortunes.
“Although Mamata-di said
that everyone should pay attention as roll revision is a matter of importance, it was clear that no one was willing to
listen to Mukul-da and it summed up everything,” he added.
Over the last couple of
months, Mamata has been projecting Abhishek as the face of
the party while he took on the
likes of the BJP national president Amit Shah at public
meetings and Subramanian
Swamy on Facebook.
In 2011, Mamata had formed the all-India Trinamul Yuva
to provide a platform for her
nephew. Trinamul sources
said that with the merger of
the party’s youth wing and
Yuva, the role of Mukul’s son,
the Bijpur MLA Subhrangshu,
in the organisation is also uncertain. Subhrangshu was the
working president of the state
Trinamul Youth Congress.
“Abhishek will pick his
own team. It is unlikely that
Subhrangshu can continue in
his position,” said a Trinamul
leader.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 4
▼
Bomb house cops set
to be made fall guys