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News Desk: The TMC government of West Bengal filed an affidavit before the Calcutta High Court on Monday which states that the NHRC committee “was fraught with bias against the ruling dispensation”. It also claimed that members of the panel share close ties with BJP leaders.
“The formation of the committee and the purported field teams are fraught with bias against the ruling dispensation in the state of West Bengal.
“It will be evident that the committee has been deliberately constituted to spearhead a witch hunt against the entire state machinery in West Bengal” the affidavit maintained.
The matter is scheduled to be taken up for hearing on Wednesday by a five-judge bench of the high court, presided by Acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal.
The state government, in its affidavit, has further claimed that the NHRC “chairperson has abused the process of this honourable court and appointed only those members who are interested in conducting a hatchet job against a democratically elected government”
It said that such members who have an “inherent bias” against the ruling dispensation were chosen and accordingly “predisposed to give a negative report” on the law-and-order situation.
Under such circumstances, the credibility of the panel to investigate in an “unbiased and neutral manner” is questionable, the state government pointed out.
It noted that the committee head, Rajiv Jain, had served as the director of Intelligence Bureau under the incumbent BJP government.
He was the subsidiary Intelligence Bureau chief in Ahmedabad from 2005 to 2008, when “Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat and Amit Shah a minister”, the affidavit explained.
It said that another member Atif Rasheed, a former president of ABVP students’ union in Satyawati College, had contested the Delhi Municipal elections in 2021 on a BJP ticket.
Contending that the state government was not given an opportunity to be heard, the affidavit said the “report ought not to be considered by this honourable court”
Denying the allegation that the entire state machinery in West Bengal is responsible for post-poll violence, it submitted that the “police and all other competent officers of the State of West Bengal have taken all steps to prevent any violence after the declaration of results for the West Bengal State Legislative Assembly on May 2”
