MAMATA SLAMS SHAH MEETING WITH UP CABINET MINISTERS
KOLKATA :Dictatorship has given way to super dictatorship in the country, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee remarked at a function of a TV channel on Friday. Referring to Amit Shah’s recent meeting with Uttar Pradesh ministers, Banerjee expressed surprise at the locus standi of a party chief meeting the cabinet. She, however, did not name the state.
“Modi is the Prime Minister. But now we have Amit Shah meeting ministers. Super dictatorship prevails in the country,” she said. Banerjee made it clear that the Prime Minister meeting ministers is understandable, but Shah had no business meeting them. “I want to know who the Prime Minister is. Is Narendra Modi the Prime Minister or is it Amit Shah?” she asked.
“Why will they bulldoze me? Democracy is endangered. During the time of Atal Bihari Vajpayee we had no problem. Why is problem being created by the party for everyone now?” remarked the Bengal chief minister, who has emerged as one of the most bitter critics of the BJP.
She also referred to the deaths of over 100 children in a government-run hospital in Gorakhpur and said that despite being a cash-strapped state, her government has improved healthcare in Bengal. “Institutional delivery has risen from 65 per cent in 2011 to 92 per cent now. Infant mortality rate too has gone down to 26 every 1,000 births as opposed to 32 during the previous (Left Front) regime. If we can do it, why can’t they (BJP-ruled government in UP) come up with such social welfare schemes? They have enough money.”
She also took a dig at UP health minister Sidharth Nath Singh. “There is a health minister who had come here and said ‘Bhaag Mamata Bhaag’. Where will he hide now?” she remarked.
She refused to elaborate on the question of unity among the Opposition parties except saying that more parties will join the bandwagon.
“There is no platform yet but we are coming together. In the next six months more parties will join us. They are afraid to speak up over fear the Centre would let loose investigating agencies after them.” Mamata also accused the Centre of “saffronisation of education.”