With her Government’s so-called “integrity TRP” taking a hit as never before in the wake of multi-departmental recruitment scams (the school level appointment scandal to begin with) exploding in the face of the ruling Trinamool Congress packing a number of her senior ministerial and party colleagues off to jail, Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has decided to launch a movement against the BJP Government alleging deprivation.
Moments before leaving for Puri where she would offer prayers at the Jagannath Temple, Banerjee on Tuesday said she would soon start a two-day dharna against central deprivation. While in Odisha Banerjee is also likely to meet Chief Minister Naveen Pattanaik apparently to discuss the possibilities of an anti-BJP, anti-Congress Front ahead of the 2024 general elections.
“We are an ideal case of central deprivation … Bengal has been subjected to a lot of deprivation and torment … they (read the BJP Government) have not been paying our legitimate dues … Why are they not clearing the funds for 100-days’ work scheme and even the housing scheme … what is the reason,” Banerjee asked adding she would hold a sit-in demonstration at the statue of Baba Saheb Ambedkar in Kolkata.
“In protest against central deprivation and torture I will personally sit in a dharna for two days on March 29 and 30 … the people must be told the kind of treatment we are getting … Bengal is the only state that has not received a farthing from the Centre (towards the payment of MNREGA wages and PMAY funds) … They did not earmark anything even in this year’s Budget,” Banerjee said.
Experts called it a desperate attempt to turn the popular attention from the SSC and other scams and rising discontent inside the party that has unnerved the top leadership to an extent that even senior ministers have been asked not to speak out of turn.
“The Centre on the one hand has blocked the funds and on the other they are sending inspection teams and agencies” to brow-beat the State, Banerjee said reminding how the “agencies are being used for political reasons only.”
Her dharna resolution notwithstanding, the sharp sting in her speech seemed missing on Tuesday, said experts wondering whether she was unwilling to provoke Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah.
This, particularly at a time when the Enforcement Directorate has told the designated courts that while in the course of investigation into the SSC scam case it has hit goldmines — in the shape of mobile call data records that could put topmost TMC leadership in trouble.