BJD, formerly perceived as being close to the Modi government, has of late been criticising it on issues such a triple talaq & Citizenship Amendment Bill.
New Delhi: The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) is among the opposition parties that have expressed solidarity with West Bengal’s Mamata Banerjee government in the recent CBI showdown, but the Odisha-based party says it’s not a sign of its gravitation towards the opposition mahagathbandhan.
Cuttack MP Bhartruhari Mahtab, who is also the floor leader of the party in the Lok Sabha, told ThePrint that the BJD had only criticised the CBI’s role in Kolkata as it was an issue of “national interest”.
“It does not mean that we are close to the grand alliance,” he said. “Do not group the BJD with some political parties [just] because we have criticised the CBI action in West Bengal. There has been no change in our position. We still maintain an equidistance from both the BJP and the Congress,” Mahtab added.
A bitter face-off ensued between the West Bengal government and the Centre Sunday evening as a CBI team landed at the residence of Kolkata police commissioner Rajeev Kumar to question him on his alleged role in the Saradha Ponzi scam. Four CBI officials were subsequently detained by Kolkata police.
While the BJD joined other parties in criticising the action of the CBI in the Lok Sabha Monday, it stayed away from the delegation of over 20 opposition parties that went to the Election Commission in the evening to demand the mandatory authentication of electronic voting machine (EVM) results with the voter verifiable paper audit trail in 50 per cent of polling booths in every constituency for the Lok Sabha elections.
“The BJD did not join hands with the opposition parties on EVMs because we do not think it is an issue,” Mahtab said. “We do not subscribe to the view that EVMs are not reliable.”
The BJD, he added, will not mount opposition just for the sake of it. The only reason the BJD had questioned the CBI action in West Bengal was because “it had put a question mark on the agency’s institutional integrity”, he said.
The party had stated as much in a press note issued Monday.
“The manner in which the CBI is acting demonstrated that it is becoming a stooge of the party that is in power. In Odisha, sudden action of CBI just before panchayat elections in the past [2017] and now before the general elections smacks of unprofessional conduct…. CBI should function as an independent organisation,” it had said.
The Kolkata showdown came days after the CBI summoned two BJD MLAs, Atanu Sabyasachi and Arun Saha, for interrogation in an alleged chit fund scam in the state.
Also read: Saradha Ponzi scheme: The scam behind Mamata’s dharna against CBI
Turning tides
Founded in 1997, the BJD has been the unchallenged leader of Odisha since 2000. Of the state’s 20 serving MPs (one seat is vacant following Baijayant Panda’s resignation), 19 are from the BJD.
The party was, until recently, one of the few opposition parties perceived to be friendly towards the Narendra Modi government.
It supported some of the controversial decisions of the NDA government such as demonetisation and the roll-out of the goods and services tax. It voted for the NDA’s presidential candidate Ramnath Kovind in 2017, and supported the coalition’s candidate in the election for the post of Rajya Sabha deputy speaker last year.
However, the tide seems to have turned since. In January, BJD chief and Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik led a protest rally in the Capital to highlight what he termed the central government’s apathy towards Odisha farmers.
The BJD has also opposed the Centre’s showpiece Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill 2018, popularly known as the triple talaq bill, when it came up for passage in the Lok Sabha in December 2018.
“There has been no change in our stand,” Mahtab told ThePrint. “We are against making the practice of instant divorce a criminal offence.”
The bill is currently pending in the Rajya Sabha.
The BJD protested against the controversial Citizenship Amendment Bill, which seeks to grant Indian citizenship to non-Muslims from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, when it came up for passage in the Lok Sabha.
Mahtab said the BJD will move amendments against the bill, when it comes up for passage in the Rajya Sabha. “We want Bangladesh to be dropped from the purview of the bill,” he told ThePrint.
Odisha is due to go to the polls later this year, likely alongside the Lok Sabha election.