Mamata Banerjee too thinks daal mein kuch kaala hai when it comes to BJP’s thumping victory in the Uttar Pradesh elections.
Breaking her silence for the first time in many weeks the Bengal Chief Minister did a “comprehensive Centre-bashing” and warned she was not the one to take the “Centre’s hegemonisitic approach” lying down “neither will we allow polarisation of votes in the name of religion in Bengal. We will stop them here in this State.”
Bengal would live by its history of brotherhood and no effort to divide the people on communal grounds would be tolerated she said.
On BJP's huge victory in the UP elections she wondered: “Can you register such a victory if the EVM is functioning normally! There is more than what meets the eye.”
Speaking in a televised interview in a Bangla media channel the Chief Minister also said she would take a decision on the proposed Teesta water treaty between India and Bangladesh “keeping the interests of my own State and own people in mind.”
On the New Delhi’s so-called “interventionist ways”, the Chief Minister said, “though we have cooperated with the Centre and they too have helped us on many occasions they always try to interfere in the State’s matters which is not good. Other States too feel the same as I do but they cannot speak out of fear. But take it from me I will continue to raise my voice.”
In what looked like an apparent warning to Delhi against “taking the law suits too far”, Banerjee said there were instances when the “Centre is trying to arm-twist us” by using pending cases but “they should remember that like them we also have court cases which are being probed by us.”
Incidentally the State police had recently started investigation against a highly-rated ED officer who had been investigating the Rose Valley case.
Speaking on the Narada sting issue, she tended to make conflicting statements, first doubting Narada News’ credibility and second calling the video footages a “product of conspiracy hatched by the BJP against me.”
She said, “Narada has no credibility at all. So the investigators should first try to find out where the money came from.”
Also playing to the Muslim gallery she added “BJP hatched this conspiracy against me because in 2014 to use the tapes in 2016 because I had then objected to some statements made by some people against a particular community saying ‘those who have infiltrated from Bangladesh will be pushed back immediately.”
Or else what would explain the release of Narada tapes from the BJP office first.
On the allegations that Trinamool Congress MP KD Singh had funded the sting exercise in connivance with “4-5 BJP leaders” Banerjee said “it was my blunder to make KD an MP. I thought that he was a good man as I had seen his photographs with Buddhadeb Bhattacharya I thought that this man must have clean records. But that was my fault.”