West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee never appeared so fidgety, not even after the Singur fiasco and the Nandigram killings, when he faced the media recently — twice in quick succession. On the first occasion, he announced the withdrawal of a state police agency, the CID, from inquiring into the unnatural death of Rizwanur Rahman, allowing the CBI to step in. This was after a Calcutta High Court order. Then he stated he was scrapping a judicial commission he had set up to inquire into the episode.

In between these two developments, there have been other major setbacks. The most stunning among them was the virtual shunting out of almost the entire top brass of the Kolkata Police, including Bhattacharjee’s handpicked commissioner of police, Prasun Mukherjee.

All these indicate that the the government had bungled in its initial response to the tragedy. Today the issue has snowballed into a major embarrassment for the government and the CM in particular. What surprises many is the fact that although it has been two months since news of the Rahman killing surfaced, Buddha is still struggling to come to grips with its repercussions.

There are other aspects to consider too. For the first time in his seven-year tenure, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s image as being in command has taken a beating. The admission that the case has been a staggering blow to the government came from none else than CPM patriarch Jyoti Basu, who had stated that the government could have handled the issue better and acted with far greater promptness in removing the tainted Kolkata police officers than it had. As Basu put it, “The delay has harmed the image of the government.”

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