In an unprecedented incident a few days ago, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee held a protest outside the offices of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in Kolkata, supported by hundreds of party workers.Some of them threw stones at the office building, demanding the immediate release of four Trinamool Congress (TMC) functionaries, including two ministers who had been arrested by the CBI in the infamous Narada scam in which the accused had agreed to accept bribes in a sting operation.Banerjee described these arrests as ‘vendetta politics’ by the Central government because the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lost the West Bengal assembly election, and asked the CBI to arrest her too. This unsavoury incident was shown on all TV channels.In this incident, and in the series of incidents which preceded it, none of the dramatis personae – the chief minister, the Centre, Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar, the Election Commission and the CBI – have covered themselves with glory. But more about that later.Coming back to Banerjee, none of her numerous supporters outside the CBI office followed COVID-19-appropriate behaviour even though West Bengal is passing through a serious wave of the pandemic. The local police took no action in either checking this flouting of COVID-19 norms or in controlling the mob or registering cases immediately and arresting the accused. This was a complete failure of duty mandated by the law. It was left to the central forces to keep the crowd from entering the CBI’s office.Fearing a law and order problem, the CBI produced the accused virtually in the CBI court rather than taking them to the court physically, and sought judicial custody of the accused. However, the special CBI court granted bail to the accused, following which the probe agency approached the Calcutta high court. The high court also ‘frowned’ upon the conduct of the chief minister during the day.Calcutta HC. Photo: PTI/FileThe division bench of two judges at the high court could not agree on interim bail and thus put the accused under house arrest. The matter is now being heard by a larger bench in the high court as its staying of bail has been challenged by the accused. The CBI on Monday morning went to the Supreme Court to challenge the high court order allowing the house arrest of the four leaders from Bengal.Also read: Bengal Is Paying the Price for BJP’s Failure to ‘Conquer’ the StateMeanwhile, the governor of West Bengal kept on tweeting about this protest and violence beseeching the senior state administrative and police officials to control the situation as it was their duty administratively and as per law and the constitution. However, the advice and admonition of this constitutional head of the state was ignored and nothing was done. There has been an ongoing feud between the two which is unfortunate as each is not respecting the status and position of the other.State of law and order @MamataOfficial even at the main entry gate of Raj Bhawan worrisome with stance police @KolkataPolice leaving all to be desired. And all this when the area is subject to 144 CrPC prohibitory orders. Constrained to seek an update on it. pic.twitter.com/HIiD7bTf67— Governor West Bengal Jagdeep Dhankhar (@jdhankhar1) May 19, 2021 As far as the Centre’s conduct is concerned, the TMC’s allegation that the CBI has acted in a politically partisan manner by not arresting two other accused politicians, who joined the BJP, seems to have some validity as no satisfactory reply has been given by the probe agency to this charge. Further, the Centre’s decision to provide central forces’ security cover to the BJP’s newly elected MLAs in West Bengal is against established norms as law and order (and thus security) is the responsibility of the state government.The Centre may have done so apprehending that the state government will not give proper security cover to these MLAs due to political reasons or out of fear that the policemen so deputed by the state would act as spies on them for the state government. Nevertheless, it is a new practice which at best should have been avoided or done with the consent of the state government.Recently, the EC had also come under fire from the TMC for being ‘partisan’. That apart, it should have banned big election rallies due to COVID-19 but didn’t do so, giving a distinct impression that it was supporting the BJP which wanted to hold rallies. At the same time, the TMC didn’t show any restraint either in holding big rallies.Also read: Did Political Rallies Contribute to an Increase in COVID-19 Cases in India?The EC should be effective and impartial in performing its duties in the interest of the nation. It is so unfortunate that the Madras high court castigated its action in allowing big election rallies in Tamil Nadu during the pandemic by observing that the EC’s action was tantamount to “murder”, remarks which were not expunged by the Supreme Court.There seems to be an all-out war there. All this is setting dangerous precedents for others to follow which is not good in a democracy with a federal polity. If not checked, this may become a serious issue in future. Everyone should take a step back, reflect and act with honesty and maturity for the good of the country.While the state government may have its apprehensions, and rightly so in its judgement, the methods used by it to achieve its objectives are not right. For a popular leader who has won her third term so convincingly, measured words would have far more force than actions like the one being taken.Further the state government can approach the courts – from the lowest to the highest – which are the best forum to air its grievances against all institutions allegedly doing injustice to it, and seek redressal.For proper functioning of the police, unless there are long pending reforms, there won’t be any improvement in the situation. Mainly it should be taken out of political control and only be answerable to the law. The central government and the EC also should not only be fair and impartial in their actions but appear to be so. Same with the CBI, which should also be fair in its functioning so that there is no obstruction in its work by the states, especially when what is needed is cooperation.B.L. Vohra is a former IPS officer.