In a vitriolic attack on the Centre, West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chairperson Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday said the Congress government had no moral right to continue in power and likened it to a “dead body” that was “rotting.”
“What will have to be decided is whether to take [the body] for cremation or burial on the shoulders or in a hearse because there is none to carry it,” Ms. Banerjee said.“The reshuffle was an internal matter of the party [the Congress] and it was left to it to decide whether to cut the head of the fish or its tail… No other party has joined the government but for the Nationalist Congress Party, which was only to please Sharad Pawar. Mulayam Singh Yadav, Mayawati, the DMK had been asked to [join] but none joined the government. Is this not a no-confidence sign against the UPA government?” she asked.
“So we can clearly say that what is left is a Congress government, not a UPA government… It is a one-party government, a one-party rule. There are one or two constituents who are flickering like fireflies and providing it some shelter,” Ms. Banerjee said.
Ms. Banerjee observed that she had raised the question of moving a no-confidence motion against the UPA government in Parliament the day the Trinamool withdrew support to the alliance.She said the government should have ascertained whether it still enjoyed the confidence of the House after having taken controversial decisions such as the cap imposed on cooking gas cylinders, the repeated hike in fuel prices and allowing foreign direct investment in multi-brand retail.
Ms. Banerjee also charged the government with misusing the CBI. She derided the Cabinet reshuffle saying “the Ministers have no importance, they are valueless as the government has no majority.”
