Days after flaying Prime Minister Narendra Modi for “selling Sindoor to win elections” after the India-Pakistan conflict and blocking Bengal’s “legitimate funds” intentionally impeding its infrastructural projects, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has sought his appointment sometime next week to discuss pending Central dues to the State.
Sources at the State secretariat Nabanna said a formal request had already been forwarded from the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) seeking an appointment sometime next week “if possible on June 10.”
There were contradictory reports from Nabanna and the State Trinamool Congress about Banerjee’s chances of meeting leaders of Indian National Democratic Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) during her stay in Delhi apparently to avoid running with the hare and hunting with the hound in a single transaction.
“It is unlikely that she will meet the other INDIA leaders during her stay in Delhi, there can be various reasons for this but most importantly she wants to keep it an official Government-to-Government meet,” a senior TMC leader and MP said but on the other hand an equally notable source said that there were chances of her calling on some prominent INDIA leaders. “You never know because Mamata Banerjee has her own successful ways of doing things,” one said.
However, it goes without saying that during her stay in the Capital, Banerjee is likely to meet her party MPs in both Houses of Parliament.
The Chief Minister’s reported letter to PMO comes close on the heels of her hard-hitting statements against the Prime Minister and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, particularly after the former’s Alipurduar rally in North Bengal where he not only narrated the success story of Operation Sindoor against Pakistan but also lambasted the Bengal Government for corruption, nepotism, lawlessness, appeasement politics and not least embezzlement of Central funds and non-implementation of central projects unlike the other federal States.
Taking a “Nirmamata” (cruelty) jibe at Banerjee the Prime Minister at his recent rally at Alipurduar said, how “today Bengal is grappling with a five crises: The first is the widespread violence and lawlessness that are tearing apart the fabric of society of which the riots at Murshidabad and Malda are stark examples, second is rising crime against women, third is rampant corruption and criminalisation, while fourth and fifth are large-scale unemployment and resultant despair among the youth and practicing by the ruling party a kind of politics that has led to the exploitation of the poor at large in that order.” He immediately invited a vehement retort from the Chief Minister who attacked the Prime Minister for using Operation Sindoor for electoral purposes. “He started as a tea vendor, then called himself a watchman and now is selling Sindoor for electoral gains,” Banerjee said alleging how the Centre had withheld thousands of crores of rupees that legitimately belonged to Bengal impeding the State’s developmental projects.
“The State has been asking for its money but it has been blocked, they take the GST but do not return our share, we are yet to receive `1.75 lakh crore of central dues under various centrally-sponsored schemes like the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) and Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY),” Banerjee said.
Meanwhile, reacting to Banerjee’s desire to see the PM the Left on Thursday said that she was under immense pressure from for funds. “After the Supreme Court order to clear the DA of the Government employees she now has fallen short of funds that she spends during the polls to bribe the voters including the neighbourhood clubs which in turn rig elections for her, so she has gone running at the feet of Modi to secure a bailout once again, the way the BJP has always done to her in the past to let her remain afloat.”