West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday launched a blistering attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government at the Centre and said she could not be silenced.
Claiming that everyone, including the Congress, was cowering in fear of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) chairperson warned: “If we are hit, we will hit back… We are not dependent on you.”
Ms. Banerjee was addressing party workers at the Netaji Indoor Stadium here.
The verbal onslaught comes a day after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested TMC MP Srinjoy Bose in connection with the Saradha scam.
‘Scrap CBI’
Ms. Banerjee, who defended Mr. Bose, said the CBI should be scrapped and a new investigation agency formed.
“Is it moral for the agency to continue after the observation made by the Supreme Court [referring to the apex court rapping the agency’s director in the 2G scam investigation]? A new agency should be constituted which has credibility.”
She wondered whether Mr. Bose’s arrest was linked to her decision to attend the event organised by the Congress to observe the 125th birth anniversary of Jawaharlal Nehru.
“I will go a thousand times, a million times if a discussion on a secular front is there,” Ms. Banerjee said.
Sees conspiracy
The Chief Minister saw a conspiracy and said that by arresting the party’s Rajya Sabha MP, the Centre was plotting to reduce the TMC’s strength so that it could pass important bills related to foreign direct investment in insurance and other sectors without opposition.
She directed her MPs to ensure that such bills were blocked and said that they would demand action for recovering black money stashed in foreign countries.
To keep off meeting
Hours after Ms. Banerjee’s criticism of the BJP-led government, the TMC declared that it would not attend the all-party meeting called by Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy on Sunday.
In a statement, TMC MP Derek O’Brien said Mr. Rudy had called the meeting at short notice.
“Why not a working day?” demanded Mr. O’Brien and claimed that the move to hold the meeting so suddenly shows the Centre’s “panic” before the Parliament session.
He said he had conveyed the TMC’s decision to the government, adding that his party was not at the “BJP's beck and call.”
