Bengal Crisis

Last evening whatever unfolded in Kolkata is a grave concern to the federal structure in India . The impending crisis of the accusation that CBI is being used by the Centre by the states , blew up on the face of the CBI . When the CBI stepped in to question the Commissioner Of Police , Mamata stepped in and unleashed the power of the police against the CBI . CBI officers detained , CBI Jt Director held hostage in his house and attempts to arrest him unleashed a high voltage political drama in the state with Mamata staging a dharna and the entire opposition supporting her clearly polarising the political scenario just ahead of the Lok Sabha Elections.

Let’s step back and look at the scenario and what went wrong on both sides and both could have handled it better to avoid confrontation which is detrimental to the country because more states are likely to follow this path even if the Central Agencies would rightfully want to probe charges . So the state and central agencies especially if the political powers are diametrically opposite , will confront each other for their political bosses and that is dangerous because political bosses change with time and the agencies will be used in different directions at different times . The fallacy of the handling by the Centre is that they have not handled the CBI crisis of appointment and removal of CBI bosses and have exposed their intents . It’s too much on the face . The timings of various CBI raids have also been accused to be dubious and have been told to be smelling of political vendetta. Some states have even gone ahead and declared ban on CBI in their states . This means that as per the federal structure, the Centre irrespective of the political affiliations of the states , has to adopt cooperative federalism while ruling the country as was done brilliantly by the then Vajpayee Government. What the Centre could have done last evening had PM Vajpayee been in power (hypothetically), is that it would have appraised the Chief Minister and the Chief Secretary of the state about the action . Though the CBI claims it is acting on the orders of the Supreme Court , the due process needed to be followed instead of directly knocking at the doors of the Commissioner Of Police . It was obvious that the kind of aggression and daredevilry that Mamata possesses , it was but natural that she would have reacted that way . But instead of acting on the CBI officers and arresting them , she could have called the PMO or NSA or Home Minister and then acted . 

Political egos run high and it’s imperative that before the elections, rhetoric is at the highest levels . So accusations will fly high from both sides . The Centre through the CBI would hasten the probes against the opposition to make brownie points in the fight against corruption while dragging its feet on Mallya , Raphale and other cases against it. The opposition will hit from ten states in their hand while the main opposition Congress fights it out at the Centre.  Despite all political machinations, the beauty of our democracy will take its first big dent with the Bengal crisis and will have its first casualty in the cooperative federalism due to the confrontationist attitude of the Centre and the State with neither ready to blink first . Beware India !