After the ED arrested senior West Bengal Minister Partha Chatterjee in connection with the school-level recruitment scam, WB CM Mamata Banerjee launched a vitriolic attack on her opponents on Monday warning that “she would have chopped off their tongues had she not been in politics”.

She further added that if her opponents ‘throw ink’ at her she has ‘large quantities of tar’ in store for them. Mamata railed that her critics were trying to malign her image and that of her party TMC. She went ahead to claim, without batting an eyelid, that ‘she would never allow any corruption’ during her rule.

This is a Constitutional authority – not some maulana whipping up the faithful to avenge ‘blasphemy’ – talking about cutting tongues off. Would our judiciary take suo-motu cognizance and rebuke Mamata like they lambasted Nupur Sharma?

Partha Chatterjee, considered number two in the Mamata Cabinet, and his close ‘aide’ Arpita Mukherjee were arrested after several crore cash, large amount of gold and documents pertaining to scores of properties were recovered from the residences of Mukherjee, a part-time actress.

As is the norm with most politicians facing arrest, Chatterjee immediately complained of health issues and was recommended hospitalization by the Bengal Government-run SSKM Hospital. However, ED appealed to Calcutta High Court that he was using his influence to get a medical shield in order to evade interrogation. Chatterjee was then flown to AIIMS Bhubaneshwar for a check up, where he was found generally fit and not in need of hospitalisation.

Incidentally, Mamata’s strong Anubrata Mondal had also ‘fallen ill’ and got himself admitted for 17 days to the same SSKM hospital to evade CBI questioning in twin cases of cattle & coal smuggling and WB post-poll violence.

Continuing her diatribe during a government function, Mamata said, “If anyone is proven guilty then let him get life imprisonment.” She claimed she had ‘full faith in judiciary’. But then went on to add, “provided it is not influenced by a particular political party as has been happening in many cases”.

Self-declared seculars and liberals have been peddling the narrative that judiciary and other institutions have been ‘captured’ by BJP and RSS. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Our higher judiciary operates like an opaque old-boys club that is largely unaccountable to the elected government i.e. to the electorate. It is highly susceptible to intimidatory tactics of the elite Lutyens’ lobby as ex-CJI Rajan Gogoi explained.

There have been umpteen cases where judiciary has played to the liberal-secular galleries and failed to uphold equality of law and provide equal protection of the law. Ordering central forces for Tripura elections after TMC complaints but ignoring repeated pleas for similar deployment in WB, turning a blind eye to the shocking TMC-sponsored post-poll pogrom, intervening to provide bail for Munawar Faruqui and Md. Zubair but not applying the same ‘bail is the norm’ rule for Ketaki Chitale and BulliBai app creators.

SC has lashed out at the Modi govt. many-2 times – during peak of Covid crisis, over illegal ‘farmers’ and Shaheen Bagh protests, over air pollution, over judicial appointments (NJAC passed by Parliament was thrown out by SC as ‘unconstitutional’). Kashmiri Pandits were berated and dismissed when they appealed for their genocide-related cases to be probed.

But the Lutyens’ cabal demands complete submission from judiciary. They are angered that judiciary did not toe their line in a few cases -such as Ram Janmabhoomi, Justice Loya death, Rafael ‘controversy’ – where the evidence against the left-liberal position was so overwhelming that judges had no option but to rule contrary to the outcome desired by the cabal.

Mamata then went to on allude to the manufactured controversy over ‘PM Cares Fund’ and the bizarre allegation that Mehul Choksi and Nirav Modi are ‘connected’ to Modi (both the fraudsters were in fact granted huge loans by public banks during the UPA era). She claimed she was ‘showing decency’ by not raising questions that would ’embarrass’ many people.

Mamata is known for her loose tongue and invective-laden, intemperate public addresses. Here are some examples of her ‘decency’:

1.) She has used crass words like “shove bamboos up the a**'” and other invectives accompanied by vulgar gestures during public rallies.

2.) In 2019, during a rally for the General Elections, Mamata called PM Modi a ‘thief’ and said that she would put ropes around his waist and drag him to prison.

3.) “chadda nadda fadda bhadda”: Mamata mocking the surname of BJP President JP Nadda.

4.) “BJP is not a party from Bengal…it is a Gujarati party, danga party. They say hari hari and indulge in chori of the common man….We do not want to see Modi’s face. We do not want rioters and looters. We do not want Duryodhan and Dushasana”: Mamata during 2021 election rallies.

5.) She has addressed the PM with the abusive term ‘sala’, and even used ‘baal’ (pubic hair) in one rally!

6.) “We are not kafirs”: Mamata while addressing a Muslim crowd during Eid used the pejorative label applied to non-Muslims.

But more than anything, it is the plight of the Hindu women of West Bengal, the sexual atrocities heaped on them during her (mis)rule that will permanently define her legacy. Her ‘sajona ghotana‘ (fabricated incident), ‘choto ghotona’ (petty incident) remarks to dismiss a gang-rape as a conspiracy against her will never be forgotten.

As a final flourish to the kind of speech that only Mamata can get away with, she claimed that she does not accept the Rs 3 lakh salary/pension she gets as an MP and CM, and instead earns money by ‘writing best-seller books and lending music to songs’. For the uninformed, Mamata also fashions herself as a painter and once claimed to have sold 300 paintings during an exhibition for a mind-boggling Rs. 9 crores. One of her paintings was ‘bought’ by Saradha chit-fund scamster Sudipta Sen for Rs 1.8 crore. Readers can view some of Mamata’s painting ‘masterpieces’ here.