Mamata Banerjee fires fresh salvo at PM Modi

Kolkata: Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday further intensified her attacks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi accusing him of unleashing terror to silent protests over demonetisation by her party.

She also alleged that Mr Modi was using or rather misusing the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to target her party MPs because they had been in the forefront of the anti-demonetisation drive. “A conspiracy was hatched to kill me in a plane crash. I somehow survived. Later they merely suspended two pilots. They are dangerous people. They can do anything and everything,” she added.

Ms Banerjee was addressing a protest meeting outside the RBI office in BBD Bagh area on Wednesday afternoon at the fag-end of the concluding day of the three-day agitation, which her party leaders and worker launched not only in the city but also in Delhi, Bhubaneswar (where TMC MPs Sudip Bandyopadhyay and Tapas Paul have been taken by the CBI after their arrest in the Rose Valley scam) and several northeastern states.

Reiterating her charge, Ms Banerjee said the CBI is no longer an independent investigating agency. “It is working under the PMO. Now it has become Conspiracy Bureau of Investigation,” she said, adding that a list of her party leaders had been sent to the CBI asking it to investigate them. She claimed that they are being arrested in false cases, and that even evidences are being manufactured.    

“A dangerous party is ruling us today, which has sold the country.” In an apparent reference to wallet company Paytm, she said: “The Prime Minister has become a salesman for a company, 40 per cent of whose shares are owned by a blacklisted Chinese company.”

Using the Gujarat communal carnage of 2002 as a stick to beat Mr Modi, Ms Banerjee said it is a pity that he has not taken any lesson from the Godhra riots. “We are not afraid of riots...Trinamul Congress is not made of soft soil wherein even rats can make holes. We fight with the tigers. We will not be rattled by the rats,” she added. Earlier, party MP Kalyan Banerjee also used the term “rat” in reference to the PM when he said he will have to return to Gujarat after the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Directing her ire at the RBI, the CM asked the central bank of the country to break silence. “Remove the nicoplast from your mouth. Inform the people how much money you have sent to each state (after demonetisation),” she said. Defending TMC leaders, she asked what was their crime. “ What has Sudip (Bandyopadhyay), Firhad (Hakim), Sovan (Chatterjee), Subhendu (Adhikari) done?” she asked.

She said the chit fund business started during the rule of Jyoti Basu and Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. “Why shouldn’t the investigation start from 1980 instead of 2010,” she said, dragging Left Front chairman Biman Bose and Left Front legislature party leader Sujan Chakra-borty’s names.

Ms Banerjee also took a jibe at Mr Modi’s “56-inch chest” saying that even Ravan, the mythological character in Ramayana, had a big chest.

“Since demonetisation, revenue earnings of the state (West Bengal) have gone down by 25 per cent. We have incurred a loss of Rs 5,500 crore in these two months,” she claimed. She expressed surprise that while 92 per cent of the villages did not have post offices, Mr Modi is “canvassing” for a “blacklisted” company like Paytm.