Lashing out at Home Minister Amit Shah for his public call to topple the Bengal government by 2025 if the BJP won 35 seats in the general elections next year, chief minister Mamata Banerjee demanded Shah’s resignation on grounds that his comment was “extra Constitutional” and reeked of “conspiracy”.
“The home minister has every right to hold political meetings in the state, it’s his prerogative and freedom. But he swore an oath to the Constitution when he assumed that chair. As a union minister, it’s his duty to protect the democracy and federal structure of this country. Instead, in all his arrogance, the home minister himself seemed to be hatching a conspiracy when he said that a democratically elected government will fall before completing its term if the BJP won 35 seats. Under what law can he do that? Is he drafting new laws? Would he replace the Constitution as well? I think he has lost his right to remain in that chair and we are demanding his resignation in a democratic manner” Mamata Banerjee said from state secretariat Nabanna on Monday, referring to Shah’s speech on 14 April in Birbhum.
“First try and win five seats from here. Then think of winning 35,” she jibed.
Drawing attention to former Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik’s recent allegations against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in connection to the Pulwama attack, Banerjee also demanded a high level judicial inquiry by sitting Supreme Court judges “to unveil the truth”. The attack, which claimed the life of 40 CRPF personnel when a convoy of trucks was passing through the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway and the responsibility of which was claimed by Pakistan-based terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad, took place on 14 February, 2019.
“We salute our jawans and we love our motherland and those who sacrifice their lives for her. They are devoted and dedicated to the country. But their sacrifices are not meant for polarization and fake nationalism. Satya Pal Malik spoke about intelligence failure which everybody knows. We too raised the point back then. But we did not say anything against the government because it was a national issue. But the truth will come out one day and truth will prevail. Malik was in chair at the time and he has told how we lost the lives of 40 jawans. We want an investigation into this,” Banerjee said.
Referring to the multiple central teams sent to Bengal to probe allegations of post-poll violence, Banerjee said: “How many central teams have visited Pulwama? I have doubts about the Centre’s investigation.”
Asked who she thinks should conduct the investigation, Banerjee said: “If the highest chair of the country is involved, then who can investigate? I have total confidence in the Supreme Court. Only the judiciary can save this country. If an investigation or inquiry is conducted under the supervision of active judges, only then people may know the truth.”
Hitting out at Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari but without naming him, Banerjee said: “Amit Shah’s chief advisor from this state is the biggest dacoit. If there have been problems in the education sector, he was the one who started it.
“We are aware of the strategies planned at Amit Shah’s meetings… to create communal tensions, enhance casteism and all agencies to provide support to those endeavors. We have information that a large central team has already arrived in this state. We got this information because not all officers are with the BJP. Why have they come? What’s their number? Why have you increased the BSF’s domain to 50 kilometres inside state territory? So that they can harass and intimidate more and more villagers ahead of the panchayat elections?” the chief minister questioned and accused the Centre of “politicizing the paramilitary forces”.
Banerjee further alleged that the Centre was trying to single out select areas of the state to “implement NRC and CAA in a roundabout way” in the name of “elimination of illegal Aadhar cards”.
“I have received a letter last week which has identified minority dominated areas of North and South 24 Parganas district. It says that if Aadhar card credentials don’t check out, then an individual would be declared a foreigner. They are again playing with fire with the NRC card which they began playing since 2014 but had stopped for a while because of the nation-wide agitations. They want us to conduct joint inspections with their officers in those areas. They are trying to bring the Assam detention camps here,” Banerjee said while reading out the Centre’s communication on the pilot project of verification and updation of illegal Aadhar cards in selected districts of the state. The letter, signed by a Union under secretary and addressed to the UIDAI, aims at identification of “exact pockets of settlements of illegal foreigners” in the state.
“Why do we need so many cards? Why should people renew Aadhar cards every 10 years? It only adds to their harassment. Aadhar is not mandatory in our state. We will not execute this order because law and order is a state subject and I am not going to carry out an order to implement NRC or CAA,” she asserted.
Reiterating her call for a united opposition, Banerjee said: “I call upon all the opposition parties of this country to come together once again to fight the tyranny of the BJP. I am certain that if we join hands, BJP is not going to return to power in 2024.”
On a day the third TMC MLA, Jiban Krishna Saha, was arrested by the CBI in connection with the state recruitment scam, Banerjee alleged that the BJP was trying to keep Trinamul MLAs out of the Assembly by keeping them in custody. “The have targeted 5-6 of our MLAs and want to keep them away from the House. But that plan won’t succeed since our numbers are very high and some BJP MLAs are also supporting us.”
Asked to comment about Saha’s arrest against whom a 500-crore scam estimate has been posted by the agency, Banerjee snapped: “What is the proof of that? Either you prove what you are saying or we will send a defamation notice against your organization which is maliciously spreading fake information against our party.”
