With panchayat elections barely a few months away Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday raked up a new controversy saying it was not she but the CPI(M) that drove out the Tatas from Bengal.
“There is a major disinformation campaign going around that I drove the Tatas out of Bengal after the Singur movement … It was not me but the CPI(M) which was responsible for Tatas’ exit … they drove the Tatas away from Bengal,” Mamata Banerjee said, adding that her anti-land acquisition movement post 2006 that finally saw the Tatas leaving the State was only to protect the farmers from arbitrary State action and not an act against industrial investment.
“I had only taken up the farmers’ cause as their lands had been forcibly taken by the CPI(M) government … I wanted industry as I want it now but not by forceful acquisition of land … we have set up industry but there was no controversy,” said the Chief Minister leading the opposition parties to hit back.
“We in Bengal make no discrimination and we want all the industrialists to come here,” she said referring to the Tajpur sea port project of the Adani group. “I want massive employment opportunities in Bengal and so every industrialist including the Tatas are invited here,” she said.
The Chief Minister’s statement comes barely a few months ahead of the panchayat elections and when her Government was facing alround criticism from the opposition for what they allege “running government of scamsters.”
“The world knows how Mamata Banerjee the then opposition leader had blockaded a nationally highway for several weeks … she carried out a so-called fast … she even went to the Supreme Court after coming to power through a false movement … and now she is washing her hands off it … she is a great liar,” said CPI(M) MP and senior advocate Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya.