Sting video: Trinamool in two minds

SNS, Kolkata | 18 March, 2016: How will they protect the party's credibility? In the wake of a sting video that showed party leaders accepting bribe, the ruling Trinamool Congress in West Bengal is facng a poser: whether to opt for legal recourse as a damage control measure. However, party leaders are in two minds, more so after the rival parties have filed Public Interest Litigations in the Calcutta High Court seeking probe into the developing scandal. 

After posturing initially that the video footage in circulation showing party leaders and sitting MPs receiving currency notes as "manufactured", a section of leaders has briefed party supremo Mamata Banerjee in Kolkata that to "prove the charges as malicious and motivated in a court of law will be a herculean task". 

"A section of party leaders are in two minds. There is a growing sentiment that the legal course can only add to the agony of the party," a Trinamool Congress leader said requesting anonymity. 

"Things may turn difficult once court takes cognizance of the charges and order either a judicial probe or an investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)," the leader added. 

The legal course was earlier considered seriously by the party leadership. Former railway minister Mukul Roy, a close confidant of Mamata, had said that the video footage that went viral on TV news channels and social networking were "manufactured". 

Roy had even threatened to move court.  

"But once the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress moved Calcutta High Court separately seeking a CBI probe, the party's think tank has developed cold feet about going to court," party sources said. 

"Even the Saradha scam earlier that hit Trinamool credibility went out of control once the court ordered CBI investigation," they added. 

A number of party MPs including two former ministers have taken objection to the manner their colleague Saugata Roy reacted to the sting operation charges in the Lok Sabha. 

"Protesting and questioning Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan's ruling when she ordered a probe by the Ethics Committee was unnecessary. Saugata, himself shown receiving currency, should have either kept mum in the house or taken a high moral ground and said our party is not scared of any probe," said another leader adding: "That would have been politically more sound a decision." 

Two party leaders Dinesh Trivedi and Sugata Bose have already expressed their reservation on how the party has reacted initially to the sting operation charges.