Congress Working Committee member Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Friday questioned the intent behind the Trinamul Congress (TMC) protest in the national capital against the Enforcement Directorate (ED) raid on the Kolkata office of political consultancy firm I-PAC.
He alleged that the ruling party in West Bengal was seeking “electoral advantage.” Speaking to the media, Mr Chowdhury said the TMC chose to protest when the ED initiated a search operation, but had remained silent on attacks on migrant workers from Bengal in other parts of the country.
“Perhaps a few of their MPs are still in Delhi, so after yesterday’s incident they felt the need to stage a protest,” he said. “But when migrant workers from Bengal go to work in various parts of India and are attacked on the pretext of being Bangladeshi and forced to flee, we have not seen any protest by the TMC, neither inside nor outside Parliament. Now, because the ED has taken action, they feel they should protest. This can only be called seeking electoral advantage,” he added.
On Friday, several TMC MPs staged a protest outside Union home minister Amit Shah’s office in Delhi, alleging misuse of central agencies by the Centre. The protesters included Derek O’Brien, Mahua Moitra, Satabdi Roy and Kirti Azad. The demonstration led to the detention of several MPs by Delhi Police. As he was being taken away, Mr O’Brien said, “You are seeing what is happening to the MPs here.” Ms Moitra alleged rough handling by the police and said and said: “We will defeat the BJP. The country is seeing how the Delhi Police is treating an elected MP.”
The controversy had intensified after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee allegedly intervened during the ED operation, with both the Chief Minister and ED blaming each other with their set of charges.