Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday slammed Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh for giving audience to Gorkha Janmukti Morcha’s Roshan Giri who is charged under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act and was on a “look out notice.”
Scarcely known to use harsh words against Singh in the past, Banerjee said, “I have heard that he (Giri) is on a look out notice and still he was allowed to meet the Home Minister who enjoys a constitutional position.”
Banerjee who on Wednesday declared formation of an 8-member Board of Administrators led by rebel GJM leader Benay Tamang acerbically added, “they (Singh and the BJP Government) are in a better position to understand the law but I think I would not have entertained a person who is on a look out notice if I were in his (Singh) place. Giri and GJM chief Gurung had been booked under the UAPA and were currently “at large.”
The parallel faction of the Morcha led by Benay Tamang meanwhile, was given by the State Government to run the “Board of Administrators” in the absence of an elected Gorkhaland Territorial Administration which stood dissolved after all the GJM leaders including its chairperson Gurung resigned their posts in support for a separate Gorkhaland State.
Even as the GJM called an indefinite strike that ran for more than three months Tamang and his group advocated talks with the State Government leading Gurung to expel him from the party.
The new Board will work in place of dissolved GTA “from which all its elected members had resigned,” said Banerjee. Another rebel GJM leader Anik Thapa will be the vice chairman of the Board.