Bengal judiciary has taken cognisance of the prevalent lawlessness by TMC. Banerjee is being accused of using her state machinery to muzzle the continuous dissent.
New Delhi: The Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) is facing continuous dissent from the lower levels of governance—municipal corporations and panchayats—all over West Bengal since the declaration of the Lok Sabha results on 23 May. However, Banerjee is being accused of resorting to undemocratic means, including the use of her state machinery to muzzle this dissent. The provision of no trust motion is being misused, especially in municipal corporations where TMC corporators have migrated to the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Corporators from a minimum of 10 municipal corporations have approached the Calcutta High Court for justice, saying that they had filed no-confidence motions against the sitting chairmen, but in most of these cases, either the rule of law was not followed, or the TMC administration tried to get the motion quashed.
Not just municipal corporations, even many panchayat boards have not been formed in West Bengal and according to the BJP, the state government is not allowing the constitution of panchayats and panchayat samitis at many places. Even though the panchayat elections were concluded a year ago in the state, more than 12 panchayat cases are still pending before the Calcutta High Court.
The TMC government’s move to stifle democracy is drawing the criticism of the judiciary as well.
Justice Samapti Chatterjee of the Calcutta High Court, while hearing the Bongaon municipality case, observed, “Democracy seems to be lying on the footpath. What is happening here?” She also described the incident as a “travesty of democracy”.
The corporations that have brought no-confidence motions against their sitting chairmen include Bongaon, Halisahar, Bidhanagar, Naihati, Gangarampur and Haringhata, amongst others. In all of these cases, the corporators allege that the state administration and the state government are trying to stifle their rights through various means, following which they had to come to court to restore democracy and the rule of law.
BONGAON
In the state’s Bongaon municipality, a no-confidence motion was brought by 11 municipal councillors against the sitting chairman after they shifted to the BJP.
According to these councillors, what followed was a total lack of cooperation from the state administration and the TMC councillors, who were supposed to organise the trust vote but never responded to their letters. After the state administration failed to hold a trust vote despite repeated notices, these 11 councillors moved the Calcutta High Court, which ordered the state administration to start the process of trust vote within 72 hours and to complete the procedure within seven days.
However, on the day of voting, while these 11 councillors were on their way to the venue, they were stopped by the police just metres away from the venue.
Sumanjana, one of the 11 BJP councillors, while speaking to this newspaper said, “We requested the police that we should be allowed to go as the meeting was scheduled for 3 PM, but we were not allowed to go. A huge crowd of TMC goons had gathered outside and were raising slogans. Two of our councillors, were falsely implicated by the police just the night before the voting and had to secure bail in the morning from the High Court, even then they were not allowed to go.”
In the meantime, the TMC councillors entered the voting venue and passed a resolution in favour of the TMC chairman and declared themselves as winners. The BJP alleged that the state administration, including the police present there, acting on behest of the TMC, deliberately stopped the BJP councillors from entering the venue.
Debdas Mondal, district vice president of BJP told The Sunday Guardian, “On the day of the voting, our 11 councillors were stopped right before they were about to enter the venue. Particularly, they stopped two of our councillors, saying that cases were registered against them. But we had already secured bail from the High Court for them and despite seeing copies of the High Court’s bail order, the police did not let them enter the venue. Nine other councillors who were later allowed entry into the venue were locked up on the ground floor, as the lifts and doorways to the municipality hall were shut.”
“How can the police stop us even though we showed them the court’s bail order? The court had mandated our councillors to bring the no trust motion, but what the TMC has done is, without even having our councillors at the venue they passed their motion and declared themselves as winners. This is a mockery of democracy.” Debdas Mondal added.
The 11 councillors who had switched to the BJP after 23 May, had brought a no-confidence motion against the sitting TMC chairman of the Bongaon municipality. The Bongaon municipality has 23 seats out of which 9 belong to the TMC and 11 to the BJP, while one each belongs to the Congress and the CPM. These 11 BJP councillors have now moved the Calcutta High Court. The court hearing in the case is complete and the verdict is awaited.
Justice Samapti Chatterjee, during the course of the hearing of the case repeatedly observed that the TMC government was making a mockery of democracy and called the chairman of Bongaon Municipality “shameless” for holding on to his chair despite not having the numbers.
She even questioned the police during the hearing and said, “Two councillors were denied entry into the meeting and the police did not do anything… It is the duty of the police to maintain law and order. The state owes an explanation, if the cops fail to maintain law and order. Police personnel present at the spot should have helped the councillors reach the venue.”
The court also took exception to TMC’s defiance of its earlier order and said that they were using muscle power to flout directives, which was unfortunate.
While hearing the concluding arguments of Wednesday, the court once again took a dig at the TMC lawyer and said, “Am I to believe that 10 constitutes a majority when there are 11 against you? Mathematics will have to change.”
The court further added, “Those who served the no-trust notice could not participate. This is travesty of democracy… I have to take steps to restore democracy,”
HALISAHAR
In a similar case, a no-confidence motion moved by the sitting chairman of Halisahar municipality against his own self has been stayed by the Calcutta High Court after the lone BJP councillor from Halisahar moved court.
The lone BJP councillor pleaded to the court to stay the proceedings of the no-trust vote, as he had not received a hard copy of the meeting order from the chairman and a communiqué of the same was forwarded to him via the social messaging application WhatsApp.
Taking cognisance of the matter, the High Court commented that “I have come to know that no-confidence motion notice is sent via WhatsApp. What is going on?”
The lone BJP councillor Bandhugopal Saha further alleged that the motion was filed by the chairman in order to prevent any such motion against him for the next six months. Saha said, “The TMC is using all the dirty tricks in its bags to hold on to power. The chairman of Halisahar municipality knew that he would get removed soon, so to avoid such a situation he hurriedly called for a no-trust vote against himself, as he knew that if a no-confidence motion was defeated, it could not be brought back within the next six months. Is this a democracy that we are living in? Moreover I had received a WhatsApp message for the meeting. Does the now government work through WhatsApp messages?”
Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya, senior advocate who is representing both Halisahar and Bongaon municipalities, told The Sunday Guardian, “The Mamata Banerjee government has made a joke of democracy in Bengal. Her and her party members’ acts are leading to a Constitutional crisis in the state. They are not respecting law, they are not complying with court orders as we have seen in the Bongaon case. The party is using its muscles and police to subvert democracy. Even if they do not have the numbers they are using force to remain in power”
“In the Halisahar case, the TMC is trying to do everything possible to keep their favourite man at the top,” Bhattacharya added.
BIDHANNAGAR
In the Bidhannagar municipality case, the municipal commissioner served a notice at the behest of the chairperson calling for a no-confidence motion against the sitting mayor, Sabyasachi Dutta. However, this notice has been termed as “illegal” by Sabyasachi Dutta’s counsel, as a commissioner does not have the authority to serve a notice for no-trust vote against the mayor; and it’s only the chairperson having the signatures of at least a third of the elected members of the corporation can seek such a vote.
Dutta is a TMC member, against whom the TMC councillors brought the no-trust motion. Sources said that senior TMC leaders lost confidence in Dutta after he met senior BJP leader Mukul Roy twice in the last few months.
In this matter, the Calcutta High Court quashed the notice of the commissioner and asked the chairperson to serve a notice and call for a meeting within 48 hours, if the chairperson got the required signatures for the no-trust vote.
Dutta’s lawyer Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya said, “This is how the TMC uses its might to remove people they do not like from the helm of affairs. They are mixing the legislature with the executive. The commissioner has no right to call for such a meeting. They are manipulating the law to hold on to power.”