Trinamul national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Saturday said he was proud to say “what Diamond Harbour thinks today, the rest of Bengal thinks tomorrow”.

He was referring to the police initiative to bring his parliamentary constituency under CCTV surveillance within a year, a model later replicated in several other police districts in the state.

“The Diamond Harbour police district had started its journey in 2017 and within a year each and every police station area was brought under CCTV surveillance. It was the first (such initiative) in Bengal. Now many police districts take the help of CCTV surveillance to prevent crimes and to control law and order smoothly. The genius Gokhale (Congress leader Gopal Krishna Gokhale) said ‘what Bengal thinks today, India thinks tomorrow’. Today with pride I can say what Diamond Harbour thinks today, Bengal thinks tomorrow,” the Diamond Harbour MP said during the inauguration of a new SP office in his constituency.

His comment comes against the backdrop of the controversy over the implementation of the “Diamond Harbour model” in January this year to battle the third wave of Covid-19. The model to test 50,000 people for Covid cases every day in Diamond Harbour had led to intense debates within the party when it appeared that Abhishek’s constituency had been more zealous than the rest of Bengal in testing people for Covid.

It had then appeared that the ties between chief minister Mamata Banerjee and her nephew Abhishek had turned “testy”.

Seen in this context, Abhishek’s latest assertion has raised the eyebrows of some leaders in Trinamul again.

However, a section of Trinamul leaders felt that there was no controversy to be unearthed from Abhishek’s assertion on Saturday, and that the young MP had only praised the job of the police in his constituency.

“There should be no controversy over what Abhishek said while praising the initiative of the police in his parliamentary constituency,” said a Trinamul leader.

Abhishek on Saturday drew attention to the “success” of his Diamond Harbour model in dealing with the third wave of Covid.

He asserted that many states had implemented the Diamond Harbour model to bring down the positivity rate.

“We had done 50,000 tests a day in Diamond Harbour and it was the first in India.

We could bring down the positivity rate of Covid-19 from 12 per cent to 2 per cent within seven days. This is how the Diamond Harbour model worked. Many places in Indiacopied the Diamond Harbour model and were 100 per cent successful in decreasing the positivity rate (of Covid),” said Abhishek.

The Diamond Harbour MP also praised chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s decision not to spare anyone involved in crimes across the state.

“Chief minister Mamata Banerjee has directed the police and administrative officials at all levels that action would be taken against everyone, irrespective of political affiliations…. If Mamata Banerjee can arrest (Saradha chief) Sudipta Sen from the Kargil border in Kashmir and send him to jail, it would not take more than 24 hours to catch one trying to hide from the Sunderbans to Cooch Behar,” he said.