Offence is the only — not just the best — defence for Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee, following the Supreme Court’s order on a CBI probe into the Saradha scam.
But privately, many TMC leaders admit that the fear of arrests and taint have gripped many in the party that had always boasted of clean credentials. This is for the first time that the TMC will face the CBI.
Banerjee is now playing on various shades of emotion and anger. Her reactions on the CBI are sometimes plain bravado: “Even the father of the CBI can start a probe. Now, the CBI will have to pay back to Saradha investors.”
In her rallies, she is whipping up Bengali pride too. While avoiding frequent references to the CBI, she is trying to remind the people of the Centre’s neglect.
And Banerjee, too, has found a scam. “They have created a fund to raise money to make Modi the PM. This is unauthorised, illegal and unconstitutional,” she thundered at a rally.
But the tension is palpable as TMC MP Kunal Ghosh, arrested in the Saradha case, is waiting to spill the beans to the CBI. Ghosh’s allegations against several TMC bigwigs have so far been ignored by the local police.