THE order of the honourable Calcutta High Court to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to conduct a detailed probe into the violence on Ram Navami day in Shibpur in Howrah district and Rishra in Hoogly district of West Bengal is a welcome development in the sense it will bring out the truth about the perpetrators of the crime.

In response to a public interest litigation by Bharatiya Janata Party leader Mr. Suvendu Adhikari, a Division Bench headed by Acting Chief Justice Mr. T.S. Sivagnanam directed the West Bengal Police to ensure that all the FIRs, documents, materials seized and CCTV footage are immediately handed over to the NIA. Though this direction may appear to be normal, it has a special significance in the context of the political situation in West Bengal. For, the West Bengal State machinery, under the chief ministership of Ms. Mamata Banerjee, has earned certain notoriety about its non-cooperation in important matters not just with the Central Government but also with the judiciary. The direction of the honourable judges to hand over all the relevant materials to the NIA assumes importance in this context.

Though West Bengal Chief Minister Ms. Mamata Banerjee always shouts from the rooftop about her secular and democratic credentials, she is known more for the violations of those concepts than their practice. This ugly side of the West Bengal situation has come out in the open for everybody to see on several occasions in the past some years. The general impression of the common Indian people is that Ms. Banerjee could go any distance, to any extent, to protect her turf rather than to abide by principles of justice and fairness, having been guided often by political vested interests and sectarian approach.

The violence at two places on Ram Navami day was a planned activity, as suspected by many, including BJP leader and litigant Mr. Suvendu Adhikari. Bombs were alleged to have been hurled at Ram Navami celebrations in those places -- an allegation never denied effectively by the State Police. This violence was also seen by many observers as indicating certain pattern that was found elsewhere in the country as well. Hence the seriousness of the development. Some parts of the pattern extend back to the frightening post-election violence that West Bengal saw when those who did not vote for certain party were targeted most severely in a totally sectarian manner. In those tension-filled weeks, too, the nature of allegations against the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) was similar to the allegations that are being made as regards the violence during the Ram Navami celebrations -- similar to those elsewhere in the country.

Let alone a few events and incidents, the common impression across the country is that Ms. Mamata Banerjee conducts her governance in the most partisan and non-secular manner, favouring only certain sections of the society and suppressing some other sections, depending on which side of the political divide people are.

Ms. Banerjee is known to harbour funny ideas about federal structure and unitary nature of Indian State. She has been found to refuse implementation of several central schemes alleging that those were designed to benefit the political power ruling at the Centre. Even the street urchins understand the fallacy of that thought-process, but Didi, as the feisty Chief Minister is popularly called, is in no mood to listen to the voice of reason. There is every hope that the NIA investigation would bring out the details of the truth of the violence on Ram Navami day in two places in West Bengal -- so that the wrong-doers are brought to book.