In one of the most dramatic developments ahead of the 2024 parliamentary elections, Calcutta High Court’s Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay announced he would resign from the judiciary on Tuesday and enter the larger arena of politics.
Though Gangopadhyay did not specify which party he would be joining, West Bengal’s ruling party, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress (TMC), shared on social media platforms an audio clip containing a voice resembling that of veteran politician Sisir Adhikari, saying that Gangopadhyay is the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) candidate from Tamluk Lok Sabha in East Midnapore district.
Adhikari is the father of the Leader of the Opposition, the BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari. Suvendu’s elder brother, Soumendu, is the BJP’s candidate from the neighbouring Kanthi Lok Sabha in the same district.
Outlook could not independently verify the voice but neither of the Adhikaris issued any statement denying it.
On Sunday, speaking to the Bengali language TV news channel ABP Ananda, Gangopadhyay said, “I have worked as a judge for six years. My work here is done. I don’t have anything new to do there.” He added, “I congratulate the ruling party (TMC) for drawing me into the larger arena.”
Gangopadhyay alleged that whenever he tried to do justice to people, ruling party spokespersons made abusive and insulting remarks against the court and judges. “Ruling party leaders have repeatedly invited me to the field to fight them. So, I thought, since they have challenged me and insulted me, let me fulfil their wishes,” he said.
This announcement came just about a month after the Calcutta High Court Chief Justice TS Sivagnanam reassigned all cases related to irregularities in the education department to another judge after a controversy involving Gangopadhyay reached the Supreme Court.
It is while hearing a batch of petitions alleging irregularities in school recruitment that Gangopadhyay is credited to have unearthed widespread scam, leading to the arrest of former Education Minister and TMC heavyweight Partha Chatterjee.
Gangopadhyay hit the headlines not only for his orders but also for comments made inside and outside the court, including the unprecedented instance of giving a TV interview in 2023.
In 2023, too, the Supreme Court had ordered the transfer of two cases involving TMC leaders to other benches, after the TMC prayed for the same citing his comments during the TV interview. That time, Gangopadhyay even said, “Supreme Court Jug Jug Jio”, which many found sarcastic.
Gangopadhyay has made repeated adverse comments against the state government, the TMC, and senior TMC leaders like National General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee, responding to which the TMC frequently accused him of displaying political bias. Abhishek and the state government have also approached the Supreme Court seeking to get several cases removed from his bench, alleging political bias.
On Sunday, while announcing his decision to join politics, Gangopadhyay said, “Corruption in many state government departments remains to be unearthed. Once they are unearthed, we will see that in ancient times there was a Maurya Empire and here we are witnessing the Chourya Empire (empire of thieves).”
Gangopadhyay’s entry into politics is expected to turn into a major political issue in the political campaign over the Lok Sabha elections over the next two months, as Gangopadhyay has emerged as one of the biggest opponents of the TMC. However, all parties except for the BJP faced his criticism.
In May 2022, while hearing cases related to the alleged school recruitment scam in West Bengal, Gangopadhyay unexpectedly drew Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s name into the discussion, even though Gandhi or his party had nothing to do with it in the wildest imagination.
“What is the source of income of Partha Chatterjee and Rahul Gandhi? What is the Gandhi family’s source of income? Where do they get the money from? Given a chance, I would like to know the Gandhi family’s source of income,” he had said.
Over the past two years and a half, Gangopadhyay has repeatedly expressed his lack of trust in the state police and ordered a series of investigations by Union government agencies like the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED). He had repeatedly expressed his trust in the BJP-led government and mistrust in the state government agencies.
In June 2022, Gangopadhyay said during court proceedings that during his visit to Kashmir, he had faced a great deal of harassment and realised that several police officers in Kashmir were engaged in anti-national activities. He had written to Union Home Minister Amit Shah detailing all these, he had said.
In July 2023, Gangopadhyay said while hearing a case related to illegal construction that the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), which is run by the TMC, should hire bulldozers from the Yogi Adityanath government of BJP-led Uttar Pradesh.
In the same month, Gangopadhyay also expressed his dissatisfaction over the CBI investigation into the school recruitment scam, expressed his suspicion that the CBI was trying to protect some of the culprits, and threatened to write to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose secretariat directs the CBI, about the CBI’s role in the investigation.
In January 2023, while attending an event at a library in Kolkata, Gangopadhyay referred to the first line of a poem penned by Mamata Banerjee and said that no one would be reading such poems. He also urged libraries not to keep books carrying such (poor) quality work.
In September 2023, while hearing a case related to compensation regarding death in Covid-19, Gangopadhyay spoke of “one certain Bhaipo’s crore-rupee residence”. This was seen as a direct reference to the chief minister’s nephew, TMC all-India general secretary, and Lok Sabha MP Abhishek Banerjee. Bhaipo in Bengali means nephew and it is the word the TMC’s opponents usually use to refer to the Banerjee Junior.
Speaking to journalists, Gangopadhyay had urged Abhishek Banerjee to make information about his wealth public and requested CPI(M) leaders like Meenakshi Mukherjee to do the same but he did not name any BJP leader while making such a request for the public declaration of wealth.
All these incidents had led to a literal war of words and action between the TMC and the judge and it now seems the judge wants to bring it all to its logical conclusion by taking Mamata Banerjee’s party head-on in the arena of politics.
