Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday launched a scathing attack on the Narendra Modi Government for tormenting the industry captains and forcing some of them to leave the country and victimising the Opposition leaders who dared contradict its conduct.
Hours after the police recovered the corpse of Cafe Coffee Day chief VG Sidhhartha who allegedly committed suicide by jumping into the Netravati River at Mangalore, Banerjee said referring to his suicide note how difficult it had become to survive under the current regime which was tormenting the industry captains and those who dared speak against them.
“I am deeply shocked by the incident relating to VG Siddhartha, Cafe Coffee Day founder. It is indeed very sad and very unfortunate. From what he has expressed, it appears he was greatly depressed due to harassment and pressure from different agencies for which he could not run his business in a peaceful manner. This he could not resist,” the Chief Minister said.
“It is a very sad that an industrialist like him (Siddharth) had to commit suicide due to the pressure from the (central) agencies,” Banerjee later told the media at State secretariat Nabanna attacking the central Government for failing to mend its ways.
“They have once again started victimising the industrialists and Opposition like they did in their earlier term,” Banerjee said. “Good that they have won the elections. Now they should work for the people. But instead of doing so they are harassing them,” she said. “Instead of working for the people they have started horse-trading, threatening the Opposition people who dare to question their ways. This is a very dangerous for the future of the country,” she maintained.
Alleging that many industrialists had left the country and many others were planning to quit due to the agencies, she said, “I am told that Mr Siddharth was being threatened by the Income Tax Department,” appealing to the Government to allow businessmen and the opposition to work without fear.
“My appeal to the government is that when you have been elected, you have to work in a peaceful manner so that people are confident and that political vendetta and agencies don’t destroy the future of the country,” she maintained.
Strongly condemning her statement the State BJP leaders said the Chief Minister was trying to politicize the death of the industrialist. “She is trying to use his death which is a sad incident for her own political gains,” Bengal BJP leader Sayantan Basu said adding the agencies were only focusing on the dishonest people who have cheated the people of the country.
Meanwhile, in an unrelated incident TMC MP Shatabdi Roy has offered to return Rs 25 lakh that she had received as “fees” from a ponzi company. Roy a third time MP who was on several occasions quizzed by the central agencies has offered to return the money, sources said.