Trinamul battles sins of omission

For the Trinamul, the revelation of a journalistic sting operation which exposes leading lights of the party — including MPs, and former and present ministers — to the charge of accepting bribes must come as a damaging embarrassment weeks before Assembly elections in West Bengal where it is the ruling party, and is widely expected to do well, other things being equal.

It has been alleged that a senior police officer of the state was the conduit for bribes for Mukul Roy, a former Union railway minister who was deemed to be the right-hand man of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

The flames of the scandal, which has rocked Parliament, have not touched the CM, and that’s a relief. Ms Banerjee has a name for personal probity and is known to lead a simple life. But this does not appear to be the case with many of her ardent followers, and some of her relations, who are known to throw their weight about.

As such, it wouldn’t do for Trinamul leaders, including Ms Banerjee, to speak of a “political conspiracy” at this stage, even if that indeed turned out to be the case. The allegations arising out of the sting are grave.

The Trinamul may have fended off criticism in Parliament — especially from arch-rival CPM, who would no doubt hope to reap some electoral benefit from Trinamul’s current discomfiture — if it had taken the lead in asking for the sting operation episode to be thoroughly investigated. That would have raised the party’s standing in public perception.

Alas, we live in an age when all political parties pretend that they are clean as a whistle and that their competitors are out to get them through foul means. The latter is sometimes the case no doubt. But sunlight is the best antidote to corruption. There is obviously a compelling reason for a thorough probe.

The ethics committee of Parliament obviously has a role here since names of Trinamul MPs figure in the sting operation. But for the probe to be comprehensive, only the police would have the experience and the expertise. In this particular case, care must be taken to make at least a preliminary probe time-bound, so that the scope for bandying about the charge of corruption at every election meeting is minimised, though it is evident that Trinamul’s opponents would seek to embarrass the party.

The Trinamul is vulnerable. Ponzi schemes of various kinds have flourished in its rule. Had the powerful CM been seen by the public to be taking firm steps to check her leading party colleagues from getting embroiled in matters which attract finger-pointing, she would have been in a better position today to weather the storm.