Amid growing apprehensions in the Trinamool Congress regarding Mamata Banerjee’s fate post the Enforcement Directorate summons to her Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal, the Bengal Chief Minister on Wednesday preferred to maintain “golden silence” and advised “tolerance till things could be tolerated.”
Mamata’s reaction looked measured yet a bit evasive when she was asked about the looming danger on Kejriwal even as she said, “Arvind has got a notice like many others … then there are leaders whose mobile phones are being hacked … I personally feel very sad and ashamed about whatever is going on in our country.”
Then she quickly said, “My country is my pride and I will not make any statement that will paint my country in a bad light abroad ... I often wonder what the people around the world are thinking about us … I do not want to speak much about this … as it is time to maintain golden silence which is sometimes good … I
will better not react to this question and only say that we will have to tolerate whatever is going on till we can tolerate things.”
Earlier much in the lines of what Aam Aadmi Party leader Atishi said early on Wednesday about Kejriwal’s possible arrest on Thursday a senior leader and minister in the Trinamol Congress said he would not be surprised if the ED too summoned Mamata in days to come.
For this the TMC minister from Kolkata quoted two statements: one from Bengal BJP president Sukanto Majumdar and the other from Opposition Leader Suvendu Adhikari.
Majumdar quoting the Comptroller and Auditor General said that, “CAG had on several occasions demanded reports from the State Food Department … it had
even asked for reports from the then State Chief Secretary but was not provided with the same … the fact that the CS takes instructions only from the Chief Minister … it is mandatory that he and after him the Chief Minister be summoned for questioning … it is imperative in the backdrop of the ration scam which may go into several thousand crores.”
Subsequently Adhikari too said that at least 70 MLAs were in the radar of the ED and they may soon be called for questioning on their possible links with the ration scam. The BJP presently has 70 MLAs and needs another 78 MLAs to form a Government in the State.
“It is based upon these dirty realities that many of us are apprehensive of the BJP’s designs in Bengal … having lost in the elections they may now try to bully our leaders into submission … this goal can best be achieved if our supremo can be subjugated,” the minister said adding “one will not be surprised if ED follows the Kejriwal formula in Bengal...”