MPs arrests: Congress leaders in state, centre not in sync

Kolkata: The Congress on Monday failed to clear its stand on the arrest of Trinamul Congress MPs Sudip Bandyopadhyay and Tapas Paul in connection with the Rose Valley chit fund scam.

While the state Congress said that the arrested MPs had looted public money, the party’s central leadership has termed the arrests as “vendetta politics” pursued by BJP to break opposition unity on demonetisation.

“Those who looted public money have been arrested by CBI. So why is TMC hitting the roads and protesting against it? It seems that they trying to protect the thieves,” said senior Congress leader and the leader of the Opposition in the state Assembly, Abdul Mannan. It may be noted that the party’s high command had rallied behind TMC over the issue and had questioned the timing of the arrests.

When asked about what was the stand of the state Congress over the issue, Mr Mannan said, “Our party high command said what they had felt. They had questioned the timing of the arrests. They have never asked us to stop our protests against those who have looted public money.” It may be recalled that it was Mr Mannan who had moved the Supreme Court demanding a probe into the chit fund scams. Based on his appeal, the Apex court had ordered a probe.

Meanwhile, Mr Mannan wrote a letter to governor Keshari Nath Tripathi raising questions on the two-year extension of former city police chief Surajit Kar Purkayastha as state Director General of Police. “People of Bengal apprehend that this designed motive of the ruling party, to get the police boss as a political yes man, is to influence the upcoming panchayat election,” he wrote in the letter.