The ruling BJP on Monday fielded five Cabinet Ministers to take on West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and other Opposition leaders, who it said have come together to form a “coalition of the corrupt.”
Although none of the Ministers indicated a move towards imposing President’s rule in the State, Home Minister Rajnath Singh in the Lok Sabha warned of a “breakdown of the Constitutional machinery”. He also rejected the Opposition’s charge of misusing the CBI for “political vendetta”.
Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman led a high-level BJP delegation to the Election Commission, appealing it to stop the West Bengal government from obstructing peaceful campaigns by other parties for the Lok Sabha poll. Throughout the day, three BJP Ministers — Prakash Javdekar, Ravi Shankar Prasad and Jitendra Singh — held press conferences in the party headquarters.
‘Threat to federal system’
In the morning, Defence Minister reached the EC with her colleagues Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, SS Ahluwalia, Kailash Vijayvargiya, Bhupendra Yadav, Anil Baluni and Mukul Roy to submit a memorandum to highlight instances that showed that the Trinamool Congress (TMC) “does not believe in democracy”.
“In the interest of free and fair environment, we bring to the notice of the EC certain happenings in West Bengal which have complete cooperation of the TMC.The ruling party in the State and its supporters are out in the open to ensure that no other political party gets permission to carry out legitimate activities ahead of the polls,” the Defence Minister said.
Speaking in the Lok Sabha, where MPs from the Congress, the NCP, the BJD, the TMC, the SP and the RJD accused the Centre of misusing central investigating agencies, Home Minister Rajnath Singh termed the developments as “unfortunate” and “unprecedented”.
The Home Minister said it was “unprecedented” that the CBI was stopped from lawfully doing its duty when it wanted to question Kolkata Police chief Rajeev Kumar, regarding chit fund scams on Sunday. Singh described the action against the CBI as a threat to the federal political system of the country.
‘Holding secrets’
The BJP also fielded Education Minister Prakash Javdekar to allege that Banerjee is resisting CBI’s questioning of Kolkata Police commissioner Rajeev Kumar because he held many “secrets” such as a “a red diary and a pen drive”. Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office Jitendra Singh also held a press conference to assert that Banerjee and all regional leaders supporting her are a “coalition of the corrupt”.
“Banerjee has defied all norms by sitting on a dharna in Kolkata. She kept quiet when other TMC leaders, including MPs, were arrested but has started a dharna to support a police officer. It seems he knows a lot of secrets,” Prasad said.