Mamata Banerjee on Monday condemned the Enforcement Directorate (ED)’s summons to her nephew Abhishek Banerjee and criticised the arrest of former Andhra Pradesh chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and said those who carried out such acts of “political vendetta” should remember that it could “boomerang” when they were out of power.

“This is an act of political vendetta,” said the Bengal chief minister when she was asked about the ED’s summons to Abhishek to appear before sleuths on Wednesday, the day he is supposed to participate in the inaugural meeting of the 14-member coordination committee of the INDIA bloc in New Delhi. Mamata was addressing a media conference at the state secretariat Nabanna.

“Politically, in a democracy, there are some adjustments with some parties and none with some others. That is the norm in a democracy. But there are boundaries in a democracy, which ought to be respected,” said Mamata.

In that context, she brought up the arrest of Naidu.

“Nobody should do things that are likely to (backfire) in the future…. This is my plea to every political party. For instance, they arrested N. Chandrababu Naidu. I did not like it,” said the Trinamul Congress chairperson.

A court in Vijayawada had on Sunday remanded the TDP chief in 14-day judicial custody in an alleged multi-crore corruption scam. In a pre-dawn operation on Saturday, the former Andhra Pradesh chief minister was arrested by the CID of the state ruled by the YSRCP.

“If there is some mistake, talk, inspect, investigate, which is in your hands,” said Mamata, apparently referring to her Andhra Pradesh counterpart Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy.

“But nothing should be done vindictively to anyone. In the future, it might boomerang,” she added.

Returning to the Abhishek issue, she ranted yet again against central probe agencies for allegedly trying to target him and their family.

“Repeated attacks on my family, and having to talk about that before the press… I am not okay with it,” she said.

“They disturb Abhishek in every possible way. He has to keep running from pillar to post, before the judiciary, to seek justice…. Unnecessarily harassing (him), no evidence, nothing,” added Mamata. “Today, there is a government in power, if that is why you will do these things, then tomorrow, another government will be in power. They, too, will do the same things. These things should not be done at all, is my understanding…. There is a basic courtesy in a democracy.”

Senior ED officials said they wanted to question Abhishek in connection with alleged irregularities in recruitment to state-aided schools.

“What have they (the saffron regime) not done against him (Abhishek)? But they will keep doing it, because the young generation, they cannot tolerate…. But the young generation will not accept it, they will fight with courage,” she said.

While responding to questions on the rumoured possibility of the country being called only Bharat, Mamata once again questioned the motive.

“They are striking off ‘India’, which is not correct. The Constitution states ‘India, that is Bharat’. Without amending the Constitution, doing such things is unconstitutional. We have no objection to ‘Bharat’, we, too, call it that, but there is no need to drop ‘India’,” said the chief minister.

“It seems the INDIA alliance was on their mind when they did this,” she added.

“We could also ask why the BJP’s election symbol, the lotus, is part of the G20 logo this time.”

October 2 plan

Mamata on Monday said if Delhi police — which answer to Union home minister Amit Shah — did not give the Trinamul Congress permission for its proposed October dharna at the national capital, she would pray instead at the Raj Ghat (on Gandhi Jayanti), along with her party’s MPs, MLAs and zilla parishad chiefs.

“How will Delhi Police give permission? They are afraid. I appreciate them, they are not my enemy. But in political matters, they have to obey (Shah),” she said.

Trinamul has been planning a dharna in Delhi to demand not only the release of funds due to Bengal that are frozen by the Centre — adding up to over Rs 1.15 lakh crore —but also the ousting of the BJP government.