Our Bureau

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has written to the chiefs of Opposition parties, except the Left, urging them for a united and effective struggle against the ruling BJP’s alleged attacks on democracy and Constitution. She said the BJP is trying to snatch power from the elected governments with legislations such as the National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill. She said the Bill has vested the powers of an elected government to the Lieutenant Governor, a nominee of the Centre. “The Lt Governor has been made the undeclared Viceroy of Delhi, acting as a proxy for the Home Minister and the Prime Minister,” she said in the letter.

She said the BJP is unwilling to accept the people’s mandate, and the National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Act is a direct attack on the federal structure of the Indian Republic as enshrined in the Constitution. “It also makes a mockery of the letter and spirit of democracy since it disempowers the people of the national capital. Furthermore, it violates the unambiguous verdict by a five-judge Supreme Court Bench in 2018, which upheld the pre-eminence of Delhi’s elected government in all matters other than police, public order and land,” she added.

She said in the letter to like-minded political parties that the Centre has been creating problems for the duly elected governments by misusing the office of the Governor. “In many States, including in West Bengal, Governors have been functioning like BJP’s office bearers, and not as neutral Constitutional authorities,” she added.

Banerjee alleged that the Centre has unleashed the ED to conduct raids on functionaries of the All India Trinamool Congress and DMK. “Predictably, these institutions target only non-BJP leaders, and never those belonging to the BJP,” she added.

The West Bengal Chief Minister accused the Centre of deliberately withholding the transfer of funds to State Governments, especially those ruled by non-BJP parties.

Banerjee said the Modi government’s policy of reckless and wholesale privatisation of the nation’s assets is also an attack on democracy because these assets belong to the people of India. “There is a clear pattern and purpose behind all these developments. The BJP wants to make it impossible for non-BJP parties to exercise their Constitutional rights and freedoms. It wants to dilute the powers of State governments and downgrade them to mere municipalities. In short, it wants to establish a onmne-party authoritarian role.”

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