Mamata Banerjee on Thursday attacked the Narendra Modi Government for “indecorously” inviting her at the inauguration of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s statue in Delhi and also for not inviting her during Modi-Sheikh Hasina talks before vowing to unseat the saffron government from power in 2024 general elections.
Launching a scathing attack for treating the Chief Ministers like slaves Banerjee said, “my office received a letter day before yesterday … it was perhaps written by some under secretary … and it asked me to remain present during the inauguration of the NetajiSubhas Chandra Bose’s statue … an under secretary cannot invite a person (read Chief Minister) like that … it seemed as though we are their (read BJP Government) slaves … Are we their slaves … No we are not … So before coming here I garlanded Netaji’s statute in advance.”
Banerjee was addressing a Trinamool Congress programme in Kolkata.
She also attacked the Modi Government for not inviting her during this week’s India-Bangladesh summit where the Indian Prime Minister held talks with his visiting Bangladesh counterpart Sheikh Hasina.
“The Centre did not invite me (to Delhi) during the visit of Sheikh Hasina with whom I share an excellent relationship … why are they so afraid of me” Banerjee said.
“I have also seen that they often stop me from visiting foreign countries whenever I have a programme to meet the foreign dignitaries … where is the fear … why are they so much afraid of me,” the Chief Minister said. I has been a practice in recent years to invite Bengal Chief Minister during Indo-Bangla summit considering the fact that Bengal shares a long border with that country.
However, the Centre however issued a clarification saying "Government of India does not invite any Chief Ministers for such visits. Sometimes Chief Ministers are invited for any state banquets or someother ceremonial events but in this visit there was no such event." In2015 Banerjee was invited by Modi for flagging off a bus service between India and Bangladesh.