Brutal attack on ED officers bad optics for the Trinamool

Images of bleeding Enforcement Directorate officials, after they were attacked by Trinamool Congress goons in West Bengal, reinforced the impression that might alone is right in parts of the state. That the local police station booked a suo motu FIR against the raiding ED party showed how compromised the law and order machinery has become. The charges the sycophants invoked included molestation, forcible entry and theft. The officers and their CRPF security personnel had reached the house of Shahjahan Sheikh at Sandeshkhali in North 24 Parganas to arrest him in connection with a multi-crore ration scam, but he refused to open the door.

Instead, hundreds of musclemen converged at his house in no time, attacked the officers and snatched their personal belongings like mobile phones and wallets. Three ED officers sustained grievous injuries and were hospitalised. That the ED serves as a force multiplier for the Centre is well known. But its partisanship has to be dealt with politically and not with bricks and sticks on the streets. Assaulting officials for merely doing their job is not done. They were just following orders; their decision-makers sit elsewhere. It’s like Israel blaming Gazans for acting as a civilian cover to terror outfits like the Hamas—as if they had an option to opt-out.

Instead of condemning the attack, the Trinamool shamelessly accused the ED of raid without informing the local police station. The party ought to realise that it could become as unpopular as its predecessor Left Front government if the lawlessness continues unabated. It’s the TINA (there is no alternative) factor that is working for it but Mamata’s party can’t bank on it forever. The only acceptable action is to book the goons and let the law take its course impartially.

One of the kingpins of the scam is said to be former food and civil supplies minister Jyotipriya Mallick. He was arrested on October 27, 2023. Sheikh is a Mallick loyalist, hence the ED knock on his door. The scam involved providing about 400 gm less per kg of PDS grains to all beneficiaries. The collective loot was shared with ration shop owners and the political class. A huge chunk of the money—Rs 2,000 crore by ED estimates—got transferred out of the country. People rose in revolt against the swindle during the pandemic, which was how the scam surfaced. Short-changing the poor must have consequences.