West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said she would back the India-Bangladesh Border Agreement Bill provided the Centre gave the State a compensation package “to feed and house” the approximately “one lakh” people who would cross over. She stressed that her decision to support the Bill — on this condition — was a result of the Modi government’s persuasion. Asked whether the Centre would accede to the demand, a senior Cabinet Minister merely said: “She must ask the Prime Minister herself.”
However, on the Teesta waters accord, she said she still had her reservations.
Ms. Banerjee met President Pranab Mukherjee, who is recovering from a surgery, on Wednesday evening during her visit to the capital.
She, however, did not mince words in criticising the Bharatiya Janata Party for its “political vendetta” against the Trinamool Congress, a reference to the arrest of State Transport Minister Madan Mitra over the chit fund scam. She stressed that the CBI was being used as a “political tool” by the NDA government and functioning as “a department of the PMO.”
Her party, she said, had no role to play in the Saradha scam since it had not taken place under her government.
“The attitude displayed [by the BJP] is dictatorial. The Trinamool will not bow before anyone but the people of the country. This is a political fight and we will fight politically and democratically. You cannot stop our voice,” she told journalists outside Parliament.
Ms. Banerjee maintained her party would not support either the Insurance Bill or the GST Bill in their current shape. She, however, said she had left the actual strategy to her MPs.
‘Will bowl you out’Earlier in the day, the pugnacious Ms. Banerjee told Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu: “You can keep batting but we will fight you politically and bowl you out.”
If Ms. Banerjee’s visit to the national capital was intended at delivering a message to the Modi government, it was as much to reach out to other political parties and the national media. She was all charm as she chatted with the Congress’s Hanumantha Rao, AIADMK leader M. Thambidurai and Samajwadi Party MP Jaya Bachchan, among others.
Defending Mr. Mitra, who was recently arrested by the CBI in connection with the Saradha scam, Ms. Banerjee said the Trinamool was one party that had no role to play in any scam.
