Union minister Sushma Swaraj on Tuesday warned West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee against using acrimonious words against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. This came hours after Banerjee said Modi should get a “tight slap of democracy” for alleging that the Trinamool Congress government in the state was run by extortionist syndicates.
Swaraj reminded Banerjee that as the chief minister of a state she will need to talk to Modi for administrative purposes in the near future. “Mamataji, you crossed all limits today,” Swaraj tweeted. “You are the chief minister of a state and Modiji is the country’s prime minister. You will end up having to talk to him in future. This is why I would like to remind you of a couplet written by Bashir Badr: ‘Be enemies all you want but keep a window open so that you do not feel embarrassed when we have to become friends again someday’.”
At a rally in Purulia earlier in the day, Banerjee claimed the prime minister was known for lying. “I do not bow my head in politics,” Banerjee had said. “When Modi alleges that Trinamool Congress is a party of syndicates...its government is run by syndicates, I feel he should get a tight slap of democracy [be defeated in election].”
She claimed the Bharatiya Janata Party has lakhs of rupees at its disposal and indulges in violence. “This is their politics, they don’t have any ideology,” Banerjee had said. “Money doesn’t matter to me. That is why when Narendra Modi came to Bengal and accused my party of being tolabaaz [extortionist], I wanted to give him a tight slap of democracy.”
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