Even left analysts find it difficult to understand, let alone explain, the CPI(M)’s continued public defence of ex Minister Sushanta Ghosh, currently in jail custody for his alleged involvement in mass murders in Midnapore. Presenting Mr. Ghosh as an “innocent victim of a heinous conspiracy financed by imperialist and other forces”, top party leaders have rejected the criminal charges leveled against him. It is all part of a vindictive smear campaign to malign the left movement, they say.

Nobody would have been surprised if such views were expressed by someone like Mr. Biman Bose, the party state Secretary and Chairman of the Left front. Mr, Bose had once described two district party cadres charged with murder and intimidation of political opponents in Midnapore, Tapan Ghosh and Shukur Ali, as “assets of our party.” During LF regime, the police took no action against the duo despite several accusations pending against them. After the Trinamool Congress (TMC) came to power, the pair has gone absconding, as the police serving new masters, began looking for them. Middle class opinion has been scandalized to see even former Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, who is generally seen as a man of reason and relative enlightenment among a Stalinist bunch of political old timers - an image Bhattacharjee himself had cultivated - mouthing similar sentiments publicly!

What are the charges against Ghosh and while his recent arrest and the official investigation against the charges against him remain sub judice, how exactly he has transgressed the law?

The main charge, on the basis of FIRs and eye witness reports that the police took cognizance of only after the regime change in Bengal, is Ghosh’s instigation and involvement in the murder of at least 7 persons on Sep 22, 2002, at West Midnapore. The men, political opponents belonging to the TMC, were killed by armed CPI(M) cadre. Later their bodies were buried at Benachapra area in Garbeta, where Ghosh was the MLA.

Recently, skeletons of the victims were recovered and through some identification one of them was identified by the son of a victim. Later DNA tests confirmed his suspicion. Ghosh tried to secure an anticipatory bail, but failed. Official records disproved his claim that he was not in the area on the day of the burial, which deepened official suspicion against him. After arrest, the man pleaded severe illness and got admitted to a Government hospital which found nothing much wrong, but the process delayed his interrogation. Since then, repeated requests by his lawyer for bail have been refused. Incidentally, Ghosh has won again from Garbeta in the 2011 watershed elections for the CPI(M) in West Bengal.

It is naturally too early to say whether the main charge against him can be proved or not. Regardless, other details about Ghosh which have emerged in the public domain are highly intriguing. Interestingly his party leaders, so vociferous in his defence at public rallies, have not uttered a single word about certain other facts about Mr, Ghosh which have now come to light.

For instance, Mr. Ghosh, his brother and near relatives have acquired several flats and houses and vehicles in Midnapore, Kolkata, Orissa and other areas during the last few years. For a busy CPI(M) leader and a Minister to boot, it is not known how his family developed a sudden acumen for running several small business enterprises , all during the last decade. Interestingly, Mr. Ghosh did not furnish these property details in the list of assets held by him in his mandatory declaration to the Election Commission. Also, it is hard to explain why Ghosh and his wife submitted false PAN card details to the Election Commission authorities prior to the 2011 state Assembly polls.

As the state government run by the TMC now has furnished these details to the Election Commission, Ghosh may well end up losing his Assembly seat. State Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has said she would let the law take its own course.

But the question is, why are state CPI(M) leaders so reticent about Ghosh’s new found affluence and his obvious reluctance to maintain even minimal honesty and truth relating even to routine official inquiries? Does this kind of behaviour enhance the image and reputation of a self- righteous left party that is publicly sworn in the cause of a peoples’ democratic revolution? (IPA Service)