Kim James 
Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s crackdown on “extortion” by using participants of her Trinamool Congress (TMC) has sparked rankings of protests by way of beneficiaries trying to reclaim the cash they’ve paid as “cuts” for welfare schemes seeing that 2011. In less than a month among 18 June and Bastille Day, at the least 278 protests — more or less 10 a day — have been mentioned in villages across the country, police sources instructed ThePrint. And there aren’t any symptoms they may abate every time quickly.
Now, suspicion about a TMC MP’s involvement appears to be fanning the fireplace again, leading to suspicion that the racket may be supported utilizing senior leaders of the celebration. The alleged extortion via TMC contributors become one of PM Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah’s chief poll pitches as they campaigned for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in West Bengal. The election concluded with the BJP pulling off its first-rate performance in West Bengal, winning 18 of its 42 Lok Sabha seats, up from in 2014. Alarmed, Mamata announced at a celebration assembly on 18 June that TMC contributors who price “reduce-cash” could be positioned in the back of bars and ordered that the sums paid so far be lower back to the beneficiaries.
Two years earlier than a meeting election wherein the TMC is anticipated to head head-to-head against the BJP, the backlash triggered by Mamata’s name has left celebration members rattled. The crackdown turned toward displaying that the TMC cleaned up its act after the BJP’s Lok Sabha gains within the country; however, the narrative may be slipping out of Mamata’s hand. The opposition has caught directly to the difficulty to goal her government, and the rural heartland is coming together to fight again.
Bigger fish?
Cut-money is the coins political dealers at the grassroots level allegedly take from beneficiaries to ensure the right implementation of government schemes like MGNREGA and housing initiatives, even widow pensions and grants for funeral fees. There are almost one hundred social welfare schemes run via the national government and the Centre in West Bengal: While rural residents avail of them through panchayats, city dwellers need to approach civic bodies. Said to be an exercise that precedes the TMC’s time in office, the cuts can enlarge to as plenty as 20-25 in keeping with cent for state schemes, a truth Banerjee touched upon in her speech.
Suspicion of the cut-money racket enjoying the patronage of senior leaders has given a new twist as a Kolkata-based contractor accused TMC Rajya Sabha member Santanu Sen of extorting lakhs from him given that 2012. Sen, a physician using profession, has denied the claims and sued the contractor for defamation, with the case scheduled to return for hearing this Friday. “I actually have already filed a civil and criminal defamation case of Rs 10 crore against the individual. The subsequent listening to is on 19 July,” he instructed ThePrint. “My fight is towards such politically encouraged folks who are looking to sully the honest efforts of Mamata Banerjee through defaming a few well-set up people.”
‘Trinamool Tolabaji Tax’
On 16 July 2018, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, addressing a ‘BJP Kisan Kalyan Rally in Midnapore, said West Bengal became run by using Trinamool Congress-backed “syndicates”. The Prime Minister added that it becomes nearly impossible to do something in Bengal without the permission of syndicates, be it getting admission to schools or selling farm produce at local markets, or building a house. After that, senior leaders of the BJP made syndicates their important marketing campaign plank, with the PM tapping his penchant for abbreviations to label the commissions “TTT –Trinamool Tolabaji Tax (Trinamool extortion tax).”
This was perhaps the primary time the competition made syndicates and cut-money a poll plank in West Bengal.
The TMC, first of all, omitted this. However, the Lok Sabha results jolted them into motion. On 18 June, less than a month after election results, Banerjee not most effectively instructed her birthday party individuals to return the cut-cash they allegedly collected from beneficiaries. However, they also set up a public criticism mobile underneath her workplace and ordered police to check instances against offenders.
Heartland on hearth
Since then, in keeping with police sources, around Rs, 25 lakh has been returned to beneficiaries in 15 instances in numerous districts consisting of East Burdwan, Birbhum, North 24 Parganas Jalpaiguri. On 8 July, as an example, at a village in East Burdwan district, the panchayat pradhan and a TMC member lower back near Rs four lakh to 142 villagers, charged the sum a reduce from their wages for a hundred days’ work.
Meanwhile, protests retain as other beneficiaries demand their money again, and appearance not likely to impede anytime quickly. According to police assets, the 278 protests between 18 June and 14 July, as a minimum of 50, were stated in East Burdwan and 42 in Hooghly. Bankura and Birbhum saw near 30 such incidents, the sources introduced. The trouble of reduce-cash turned into Hooghly MP Locket Chatterjee of the BJP in Parliament, after which the Union Home Ministry sought a report on the problem from the West Bengal chief secretary.
Not new to Bengal
Opposition leaders in West Bengal said that whilst cut money isn’t always a TMC creation, the celebration had surely “institutionalized it.” “Left parties used to take reduce-cash in an organized manner. Syndicates existed all through the Left regime too. But the Trinamool Congress institutionalized the stealing of humans’ cash,” said Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, the Congress leader inside the Lok Sabha. “The birthday party misplaced all control over its cadres. Now, Mamata Banerjee is attempting to be a reformer. Had the outcomes been in favor of the Trinamool Congress, there would have been no such fiery speech by the TMC supremo,” he brought.
However, the Trinamool Congress says Mamata’s speech changed into an attempt to cope with “rampant corruption” inside the united states. “Our leader Mamata Banerjee had the center to say this publicly and warn the corrupt human beings,” said Bengal Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Tapas Roy. “Corruption is an ailment, and somebody needed to treat this. Didi recognized this and initiated the treatment. She did now not care for anything while announcing this,” he delivered. “It is a crusade towards corruption. But a few vindictive members of opposition events are seeking to advantage undue gain from this. The BJP also spent Rs 27,000 crore in elections. From where did that money come?”
The CPI(M), which ruled the country for 34 years before Mamata took the workplace in 2011, said the allegations towards the party had been a bid to alternate the concern. “To keep Mamata Banerjee from this embarrassment and disgrace, a few people are attempting to show the clock again,” stated senior CPI(M) leader and former Kolkata mayor Bikash Bhattacharya. “The Trinamool Congress is basically a party of thieves. During my tenure as mayor, I tried to impose a tax on puja committees that are managed with the aid of Trinamool Congress,” he added. “It is a season of large coins transactions, broadly speaking unlawful. So, the TMC councilors gheraoed me. In numerous instances, the councilors allowed the laying of cables without permission from the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) and took bribes for that. This turned into a regular practice for them.”
Will it backfire?
After the Lok Sabha elections, Mamata hired renowned political strategist Prashant Kishor to manual the party’s arrangements for the 2021 meeting elections. There are whispers inside the birthday celebration’s inner circles that Mamata was cautioned to publicly well-known the reduce-cash racket to portray a clear picture. However, TMC cadres are ways from thrilled. Caught off-protect through the hostility they were suffering on the arms of villagers; they say it might have been higher if Mamata hadn’t painted all of them with the equal brush. “Didi has shrugged off all obligations and driven us into large trouble,” stated a district leader from Burdwan. “We organize human beings at the ground. Now, people disagree with us. They call us thieves,” the leader brought. “We respect her selection, but she should have exceptionally done this,” said another chief from Hooghly. “It may want to have saved us from such public humiliation.”
