TMC in Trouble as Protests Against ‘Cut Money’ Rock West Bengal

Kolkata: Facing protests from people for taking ‘cut money’, Trilochan Mukhopadhyay, a Trinamool Congress (TMC) booth president in Birbhum district was recently forced to return around Rs 2.25 lakh to 141 beneficiaries of government schemes from whom he had taken the money as commission.

Over the past week, there have been protests and demonstrations in various parts of West Bengal demanding that their money be returned. TMC leaders at the municipal and panchayat levels are facing increasing public anger in districts like Cooch Behar, East Midnapore, Bankura, Purulia, Jalpaiguri, Burdwan, Malda, West Midnapore, Nadia and Kolkata.

Some TMC panchayat members fled from their homes, fearful of being gheraoed. Some of them had been forced to give in writing that the money would be refunded. Some others called the police to tackle the mob.

The protests against ‘cut money’ are intensifying in the state. In many areas, the people themselves are taking the initiative to take back ‘cut money’ as they seem to have no faith in administrative measures. It is now well known that TMC leaders have been taking “bribe” — described as ‘cut money’ -- for years, as suggested by the party supremo herself.

Commenting on the protests that began after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee warned her party members against taking ‘cut money’ in an organisational meeting held recently, Mohd Salim, a member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) politburo said, “After institutionalising corruption, she now wants to portray herself as the only honest leader in Trinamool Congress. When her own party MP and popular singer Kabir Suman spoke out against extortion a few years ago, she took no action. It is common knowledge that everybody in the party gets a share of the booty”.

Under pressure from people, some TMC leaders have already been forced to return the ‘cut money’. The theft of money from various government projects and schemes is also being established by evidence by various organisations. For instance, the Students Federation of India (SFI) has also started an agitation against ‘cut money’ taken during college admissions.

Meanwhile, the state panchayat department has issued an order declaring postponement of gram sansad meetings for an indefinite period. The reason being given is that farmers were busy with cultivation. But an official of the department of agriculture, who did not wish to be named, has observed that the real reason behind this directive was the government’s fear of ‘cut money’ protests.

On June 18, while addressing municipal councillors from across the state in Kolkata, the Chief Minister had said that those who took ‘cut money’ must return it. She admitted that some leaders did not spare even the dead, charging Rs 200 for releasing the Rs 2,000 that the state government gave to the poor to cremate their near and dear ones.

It is noteworthy that after the setback in the parliamentary elections, the TMC leader has admitted to ‘random corruption’ among her party workers. In a few few months, elections to a number of municipalities are going to be held. According to some political observers, Banerjee is doing this ‘drama’ about returning ‘cut money’ in a bid to revive her party’s image. She wants to put the responsibility on lower level party workers, making them scapegoats while presenting herself as clean, they alleged, adding that the CM spoke about ‘cosmetic punishment’ and introduced a grievance cell and toll-free number for lodging complaints about ‘cut money’ to pacify public anger.

Trinamool MP Satabadi Roy has also said that “a person who has taken cut money directly is only the front man. There are others who are behind the wings. They have also taken their share, so the money has to be returned according to this chain.”

Amid the protests, a sarcastic song on ‘cut money’ by popular Bengali singer, Nachiketa Chakraborty, known to be a supporter of Mamata Banerjee, is going viral on social media.

Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is also going all out to make political capital out of public wrath. State party president Dilip Ghosh said, “From getting admission in college to building a toilet, people have to give TMC leaders a share for everything. Even policemen should return the money they extort from people.”

The mood in Bengal at present suggests that the ruling TMC is losing ground to BJP, which did well in the recently held Lok Sabha elections. The ruling party in the state has been hit by a series of defections in its ranks and now the ‘cut money’ scam is turning out to be a huge problem for it.

As protests grow, the Opposition -- Congress, Left Front and BJP -- cornered the TMC government on the issue in the Assembly. The Left legislature party leader Sujan Chakraborty and Leader of Opposition in West Bengal Assembly and senior Congress leader Abdul Mannan demanded that the state government immediately set up an inquiry commission to look into the issue. The MLAs of Congress and CPI(M) on June 24 also staged a walkout from the House. They demanded a “white paper” on the ‘cut money’ issue.

According to political analysts, in the prevalent socio-economic situation in the Indian sub-continent, corruption in high places has been common, be it the Bofors scam, the Hawala scam, or very recently the Rafale deal. They feel the way TMC has institutionalised corruption, has, perhaps, has got one parallel -- when late Benazir Bhutto was Prime Minister of Pakistan, her husband Asif Zardari was known as ‘Mr 10%’. However, the Supreme Court of Pakistan had taken action, and as a result, Zardari was disqualified from fighting an election after spending years in Jail.

However, in Bengal, an estimated Rs 20,000 crore has allegedly gone to the coffers of some leaders of the ruling party, according to some political observers. While senior TMC leaders have been booked for graft in various chit fund-related scams, some panchayat pradhans and councilors too are said to have allegedly taken a huge amount of graft money. It is also being alleged that the average annual ‘cut money’ that a councilor of Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) makes is Rs 6.25 crore (2015), which would now be around Rs 8 crore. (There are 144 councilors in KMC and by ‘forced’ elections, TMC has taken over nearly 85% of the seats in the civic body).

According to Village Watch, an NGO operating in West Bengal, TMC panchayat pradhans annually makes around Rs 50 lakh through ‘cut money’, and most of them, especially in North, Central and South Bengal districts, have now joined BJP.

The ongoing ‘cut money’ protests are just the tip of the iceberg, say some experts. Commenting on the ‘cut money’ system during the Left Front era, Jyoti Acharya, a professor of political science, opined that the system during Left rule was an ‘aberration’, adding that CPI(M) “even publicly admonished and suspended” many of its members whenever such allegations were proved. The professor said the party constituted its own investigative commission if the accusers could not furnish proof of their allegations regarding a ruling party leader.

Overall, senior CPI(M) leaders have never been indicted in any corruption allegation, and many of them were known for their austere lifestyle, the professor said, adding that now TMC and the new ‘toast’ of the media, BJP, were busy interchanging positions to protect the “corrupt icons” of the ruling party.

Kaushik Biswas is associated with Ganashakti. Sandip Chakraborty is Senior Staff Reporter with Prajasakti.