#dnaEdit: Money trail

In April 2013 when the Saradha scam came to light, it was evident that the ponzi scheme, spread across several states in the east and North-East, was too huge to be brushed under the carpet. It had to come back to haunt the ruling Trinamool Congress, and it did. That the party had immensely benefited from the company’s dubious schemes was never in doubt. Several influential leaders, most notably, MPs Kunal Ghosh and Srinjoy Bose, were on the payroll  of Sudipta Sen, the proprietor of Saradha. When the Serious Fraud Investigation Office of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs and the CBI launched investigations, more skeletons tumbled out of the cupboard, revealing TMC’s intimate association with Sen. It appears that the party, which prided itself in championing the cause of the poor, was hand-in-glove with the man who robbed millions of their hard-earned money.

Against the backdrop of the probe agencies’ findings, it would be fatuous to argue that the Chief Minister of Bengal Mamata Banerjee, who has the party completely under her grip, was ignorant about a section of the leadership’s dalliance with Saradha. The company drastically expanded its operations in the two years since Banerjee came to power in 2010, mopping in Rs2,400-crore, before going bust. The allegations that a significant amount of the money filled the party coffers may not be unfounded either. Sen also had to grease the palms of several leaders to continue his illegal operations because without the ruling party’s blessings, it would have been impossible for his business to thrive.

Banerjee may not have gained personally from Saradha, but unlike Manmohan Singh, who had little control over the Congress and the administration, she wasn’t a victim of the circumstances. As head of the party and the state government, she had not only allowed Saradha to prosper, but also paved the way for other chit fund organisations to operate in Bengal. Banerjee can’t feign ignorance about the devastating impact of such companies, especially when Bengal had already in the past paid a steep price for Sanchayita — a ponzi scheme that duped lakhs of people in the 1980s. It was her moral responsibility to protect the gullible, and she miserably failed on that count. All she did in the aftermath of the scam was levy more taxes on tobacco products to generate money to pay back a few thousand poor investors.

It’s not just Saradha for which the CM is drawing flak. Under her watch, the steep decline in law-and-order in her state has been a matter of grave concern. The rising crime against women — reflected in the statistics of the National Crime Records Bureau — and her insensitive comments on rapes have alienated even her ardent admirers. The state’s economic scenario can only evoke despondency. Four years after coming to power and promising 10 lakh jobs for the youth, she has failed to attract big-ticket investments. Her populist schemes have drained the state’s exchequer, giving credence to the growing suspicions about her ability to run the state.
Finally, Banerjee is on a sticky political wicket. It’s unlikely that the people of Bengal will forget the Saradha affair anytime soon. With charge sheets being filed, the case will evoke more than just passing interest in her bastion.

Meanwhile, the BJP, whose growing clout has been a source of concern for the CM, will pull out all the stops to reap political dividends from the TMC’s fiasco. The bypolls to two assembly seats in Chowringhee and Basirhat Dakshin offer easy opportunities to consolidate the gains. As for Banerjee, the 2016 assembly elections can well turn out to be a nightmare, politically as well as electorally.