BJP snubs Mamata over surprise remark

NEW DELHI: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday earned a jibe from the BJP even for her near-exoneration of Prime Minister Narendra Modi over alleged misuse of investigation agencies.

“No one in the BJP, and most certainly the PM, needs any validation from Mamata Banerjee,” tweeted BJP IT Cell head Amit Malviya.

He said her Trinamool Congress government and her “immediate family” — an apparent reference to party MP Abhishek Banerjee, her nephew and designated political successor — are “under the radar of central agencies, because the courts ordered investigation”. “She must account for the loot,” he added.

Mamata Banerjee had on Monday all but cleared the PM of any role in investigations that may be making businessmen flee India.

She said “BJP leaders (who) are conspiring” deserve the blame for that. She pointed out that the CBI reports to the Union Home Ministry, controlled by Amit Shah, and not to the Prime Minister’s Office.

“Businessmen are leaving the country and running away. They are running away because of fear and misuse of ED (Enforcement Directorate) and the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation).

“I believe Modi hasn’t done this,” Banerjee said in the Bengal assembly during a debate initiated by her party on central investigative agencies being “misused by the Centre.”

“Many of you don’t know that the CBI doesn’t report to the PMO anymore. It reports to the Home Ministry,” she said.

The assembly did, however, pass a resolution against the alleged misuse of central agencies.

This happened to be the day the Enforcement Directorate said it has attached assets worth over Rs 100 crore allegedly linked to sacked Trinamool minister Partha Chatterjee and his associate Arpita Mukherjee as part of a money laundering probe into a job scam.

A motion on the hyperactive conducts by the central agencies in the state was passed in the West Bengal assembly by the ruling Trinamool Congress on Monday by 189:64 votes.