2022: A year of scams, arrests and protests in WB

From the recruitment scam to the ruling party’s shifting allegiance to the Centre, the political arena of West Bengal has been fraught with strife

Scams, arrests and protests have dominated the politics of West Bengal in the year 2022. The year started with Trinamool Congress on a triumphant note after its landslide victory in the 2021 Assembly elections. At the beginning of this year, Trinamool was preparing to extend its footprints outside West Bengal, giving Rajya Sabha nominations to leaders from other States. However, the year soon brought administrative and political challenges.

The mysterious death of student leader Anish Khan and the massacre of Bogtui in Birbhum raised questions about the law-and-order situation in the State. At Bogtui village on March 21, ten people were burnt to death due to a feud between two factions of Trinamool Congress. The incident came as a major embarrassment for the ruling establishment.

Just as the dust settled on the issue, the recruitment scam posed a fresh challenge for the State’s ruling party. The arrest of Trinamool Congress heavyweight and former Education Minister Partha Chatterjee in the recruitment scam was among the year’s highlights. Mr. Chatterjee, also the secretary general of Trinamool Congress, was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on July 23 after crores of rupees were recovered from the residence of his aide. The recruitment scam continued to make headlines as one by one six officials of the State Education Department were arrested either by the ED or the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

What followed these arrests were massive protests by job aspirants who hit the streets demanding that they be given appointments since the recruitment process of the past several years had been compromised. The protesters camped at different places in the city, clashed with the police, held rallies and demonstrations, and organised flash protests, keeping the administration on its toes.

As the details of the scam unfolded with the intervention of the Calcutta High Court, it became public as to how the OMR (Optical Mark Reader) sheets were fudged. The protests gained strength. By the end of the year, the High Court directed that names of those who got jobs using illegal means be made public, further aggravating the situation.

Along with the recruitment scam, the arrest of another Trinamool leader Anubrata Mondal in the cross-border cattle smuggling scam was also a key development of 2022. While central agencies are trying to take Mr. Mondal to Delhi, the State’s ruling party is missing its key organiser ahead of the panchayat polls scheduled for 2023.

The year also saw Centre-State tussle over the allocation of funds, particularly for MGNREGA. The Centre has not released funds for the entire year in the State, severely impacting the scheme and lakhs of workers still waiting for their dues. At a time when the Trinamool Congress government was facing the heat of the scams and investigation, there was an apparent shift in the party’s attitude towards the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government at the Centre. From a perceptible confrontational stand, the State’s ruling party was tilting towards a more conciliatory approach. It decided to stay away from the Vice-President election, making things easier for the BJP candidate Jagdeep Dhankhar. Over the past few months, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has refrained from criticising Prime Minister Narendra Modi and shunned her earlier stance of avoiding meetings with the Prime Minister and Home Minister Amit Shah.