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Time for Shah to come clean

One day after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah accused the Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal government of shielding the guilty in the Saradha chit fund scam, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) hit back with allegations that a red diary belonging to Sahara chief Subrata Roy, recovered during Central Bureau of Investigation-led raid in November, had contained the BJP chief’s name. Roy has been behind bars since February 28 in connection with a fraud and cheating case. During the winter session of Parliament on Monday, members from the TMC demanded a discussion over the issue.

The demand, however, was rejected by Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan. Reacting to the allegations, Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju had denied the presence of any red diary. Despite the government’s defence, it is incumbent upon Amit Shah to come clean on the matter, since the TMC has accused the BJP-led central government of using the CBI to malign the party in the Saradha scam probe. Thus far, the BJP chief has remained silent on the issue, with other party leaders coming forward to his defence.

However, instead of hiding behind party leaders, it will not harm the BJP’s prospects, if its chief came forward and presented a defence. This tussle, however, has its roots in the Lok Sabha polls, where the BJP secured its best ever result in West Bengal. Ever since, the turf war between both parties has gathered steam, with the presence of TMC’s traditional opposition, Communist party of India (Marxist), on the wane. Both parties have their eye on the 2016 assembly elections in the state, where the BJP feels that it can supplant the TMC. In recent months, tensions between both parties were further heightened after the BJP accused the TMC-led state government of allowing a terror network to blossom in West Bengal, following the National Investigation Agency’s probe into the October 2 Burdwan blast. Consequently, the political climate in the state has been reduced to nasty verbal attacks and physical violence between supporters  from both parties.

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