Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday accused West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of trying to protect those involved in chit fund scams in the state, PTI reported. Banerjee’s ruling Trinamool Congress had inherited the “violence and atrocity” from the previous Communist-led government and was “defaming” the soil of the state, he added.
“Never in the history of our country have we seen a chief minister sitting on a dharna to save the corrupt,” Modi told a public rally in Jalpaiguri in north Bengal. “The poor want to know why did you sit on dharna to save those who are accused of negligence in probing the chit fund scam.”
Modi was referring to Banerjee’s recent stand-off with the Central Bureau of Investigation after the agency had unsuccessfully attempted to question Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar in connection with two Ponzi scams. Banerjee on February 3 had started a dharna after accusing Modi and Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah of plotting a coup. She called off the protest three days later.
Kumar, who was at the dharna venue, allegedly destroyed evidence related to the Saradha chit fund scam. He will be questioned by the CBI in Shillong on February 9 in connection with the case.
Modi said the BJP-led central government would not let either perpetrators of the scam nor those protecting them go scot-free. “This chowkidar [watchman] will not spare them,” he said, referring to himself.
Modi branded the Trinamool-led government “Communist Part 2” and said it had adopted a culture of bloodshed. “Those you gave power to in Bengal in the name of ‘maa, maati, manush [mother, motherland and man] have followed the culture of bloodshed of their Communist predecessors,” he said.
Modi claimed that the Trinamool had destroyed law and order in West Bengal, along with its economy, and that a higher number of youth were migrating to other states for jobs. “This government has defamed the ‘maati’ [soil] of Bengal and rendered its people ‘majboor’ [helpless],” he said, accusing Banerjee of presiding over an “extortionist syndicate” that was virtually running the state.
“Didi is worried about moving to Delhi and she has left Bengal, the poor and middle class to be looted by the alliance of middlemen and syndicate,” he said. “Today, the situation in West Bengal is such that Didi is the chief minister but someone else is doing ‘dadagiri’ [extortion].”
Modi also inaugurated the Jalpaiguri circuit bench of the Calcutta High Court and unveiled its plaque from his rally venue in Churabhandar. A circuit bench is for far-flung areas that do not have the number of cases needed to justify a full-fledged permanent bench.
Modi said that despite permission from the Union Cabinet given 13 to 14 years ago, “the insensitive government in the state has not been able to start the circuit bench for so long”.
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