For the first time in many months Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi for extracting credit for every project launched but taking no liability for failures.
Stopping short of mentioning Modi’s name the Bengal Chief Minister said, “wherever you go you will find only one face … he will take credit for every project … (they will claim) he is giving ration, he is giving houses, he is giving food, he is giving stipends … then why doesn’t he take liability for the disabilities … then if there is death we will say that he has given death, he has given covid, he has given notebandi (demonetization) he has given inflation, he has hiked the price of gas, he has taken away the rights of the people.”
The Chief Minister who was addressing an audience at Alipurduar in North Bengal said not everyone’s picture deserved to be displayed for public viewing. “Pictures do not say everything … for that to happen you should be in public mind …you should be loved and respected by them … you should understand their woes,” Banerjee said alleging the how the Centre had withheld all the funds due to the State.
“The State does not collect taxes. It is the Centre that does so … The State gets 60 percent of the tax collected by the Centre … but they have withheld the funds … which is required for a number of schemes … you (Centre) are not giving the funds for 100-days’ work scheme you are not giving funds for anything so that the State’s projects are getting hampered,” Banerjee said, adding she would not beg before the Centre for her State’s dues. “I will not beg before you. I want to see how far you can go with this,” she said.
Banerjee’s attack comes in an apparent view of the approaching panchayat elections; experts felt as she had curiously been silent on the Prime Minister and targeted Home Minister Amit Shah during the past so many months for the heightened activities of the central investigating agencies post unearthing of the recruitment scam, cattle smuggling and other cases. She said “I do not believe that the Prime Minister is behind these vindictive raids.”
Apparently attacking Modi for sending central teams to inspect the alleged corruption in distributing houses under the Prime Minister Awaas Yojna scheme Banerjee said “they are sending fact finding teams for Awaas Yojna … Bar Council of India is sending team to the High Court for a problem which should ideally be handled by the State Bar Council … but they will not send teams when the BSF shoots down people, when the farmers are being killed, when women are being tortured in UP.”