With a galaxy of her senior cabinet colleagues and party leaders coming under the scanner of the judiciary and central investigating agencies Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday once again cried conspiracy to subvert the Indian federal fabric but congratulated Chief Justice of India UU Lalit for “his efforts to restore public confidence on judiciary.”
“Social prestige is everything that we have … if you lose that social prestige you lose everything … there is an attempt to humiliate us,” Banerjee told at a function at the National University of Juridical Sciences.
Without naming the BJP Government in the Centre or for that matter a section of Judges in the Calcutta High Court, the Chief Minister said “Today all the powers are being used by a section of people today to unnecessarily humiliate and harass others others … I call upon the judiciary and the readers of law to see that the federal structure should not get disturbed in this manner … because if this (trend) goes on then things may move towards the presidential form of Government … where will be the democracy then … I request you all to please save the democracy.”
Though a section of the higher judiciary had often come under attack from the Trinamool Congress leadership --- particularly after the Calcutta High Court passed a series of orders directing Enforcement Directorate and Central Bureau of Investigation to investigate the school level recruitment scam, coal and cattle smuggling cases --- Banerjee however praised Chief Justice of India UU Lalit for his effort to “restore public confidence on the judiciary.”
She said “though I do not know whether it would be the right place to say this I must congratulate Chief Justice Lalit because he has shown what judiciary is … though he is retiring shortly I think … he has restored confidence on judiciary.”
Banerjee’s ruling Trinamool Congress has been under intense pressure in the wake of the arrest of her senior cabinet minister Partha Chatterjee, TMC MLA and former primary education board chairman Manik Bhattacharya and Trinamool national executive member Anubrata Mondal for their alleged involvement in school recruitment scams and coal and cattle smuggling in that order.
Reacting to her veiled attack on the Centre Bengal Opposition Leader Suvendu Adhikari said “the Chief Minister has become afraid in the wake of the actions being taken against corruption and so she used the NUJS platform to express her insecurity.”
