Rubbishing West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s allegation that the Centre was using the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to target Trinamool MPs, Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah said here on Sunday that money from the multi-crore Saradha ponzi scheme scam was used to provide funds to the Bardhaman blast accused.
“The CBI is also probing the issue,” he said at a party function here on Sunday. He wondered why the Justice Shyamal Sen Commission of Inquiry, set up to provide compensation to the duped investors in Saradha scam, was wound up. His comments come at a time when several Trinamool leaders have been arrested by the CBI in relation to the Saradha scam. Recently, the CBI summoned State Transport Minister Madan Mitra.
Launching a scathing attack on the Trinamool for the alleged involvement of its leaders in the scam, he dared Ms. Banerjee to disclose who bought her paintings and how many Trinamool leaders had profited from the scam. Mr. Shah wondered why Ms. Banerjee, who fasted for more than 20 days against the land acquisition in Singur in Hooghly district in 2006 as an Opposition leader, was not agitating for the “17 lakh people” who lost their savings in the Saradha scam.
ADVERTISEMENT
“Why is she shielding the accused in the Saradha scam?” Mr. Shah said.
Eyes on 2016
“West Bengal has lagged behind, while the rest of the country is marching ahead on the path of development under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership,” he said.
ADVERTISEMENT
The BJP’s victory in the Maharashtra and Haryana Assembly elections was “not enough,” said Mr. Shah adding that “the BJP will truly win only when it is voted to power in Bengal … In the next year and a half, I can clearly see West Bengal on the path of paribartan [change],” he said.
Mr. Shah said one of Mr. Modi’s primary aims was a “Trinamool-free Bengal.” He said the State government had failed to usher in development in West Bengal. Ms. Banerjee had “totally failed” in this regard. Her government did not cooperate in implementing the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana.
Reacting to Ms. Banerjee’s recent retort “Who is Amit Shah?,” Mr. Shah said: “I am a small-time BJP worker who has come here to oust the Trinamool from West Bengal.”
Flop show: Trinamool
Senior Trinamool leader and State’s Panchayat and Rural Development Minister Subrata Mukherjee dubbed the BJP rally a “grand flop show.” He alleged that both the CBI and the NIA had become “political allies” of the BJP. State Education Minister Partha Chatterjee accused the BJP of using the police and money power to weaken the regional parties.