PM's virtual meet casual & super flop; CMs made to sit like puppets: Mamata

KOLKATA: Alleging that the Chief Ministers (CMs) of the participating states were not allowed to speak at the virtual meeting with the Prime Minister over Covid situation, Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee—who also attended the meet on Thursday—said the meeting was too casual and super flop.

Urging all Chief Ministers to protest the 'humiliation', she alleged that the CMs were made to sit through the meeting like 'puppets' and were deprived from raising people's demands. Banerjee further alleged that 'dictatorship' was prevailing in the country and the virtual meeting was an instance of demolishing the federal structure.

"We the Chief Ministers are feeling insulted and humiliated. We are astonished to see that the Prime Minister called a meeting and invited the Chief Ministers and all the Chief Ministers were sitting just like puppets. Nobody is allowed to speak. Then, how do we speak about the public demand?" Banerjee said, alleging that only a few District Magistrates of some BJP-ruled states were given the chance to speak.

Banerjee said the Prime Minister was so insecure that he did not listen to any of the Chief Ministers. "They have bulldozed the federal structure by not allowing us to speak. This is something more than dictatorship and a Martial Law is prevailing in the country," she said.

Taking a dig at the 'one nation, one leader' campaign, Banerjee said: "This (the virtual meeting) was not a one-way communication. Rather, it was one-way humiliation...One nation, all humiliation."

Banerjee attended the Prime Minister's meeting virtually along with her counterparts from nine states and one Union Territory, including Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Kerala, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Puducherry, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh. Though the Prime Minister was scheduled to speak to 54 District Magistrates from these states, none from Bengal had attended, considering it to be an infringement of the country's federal structure.

Banerjee accused the Prime Minister of taking the Covid situation casually once again as the latter claimed that the number of Covid cases were going down in the state.

"We wanted to speak to the Prime Minister to help the people in our states. We wanted to talk about the shortage in the supply of vaccines, medicine including Remdesivir, oxygen and many other issues related to the fight against Covid pandemic. It was not against any particular government or any individual. But, he is sitting-like a Shahenshah in Delhi and saying that everything is fine when the country is at a critical juncture due to the pandemic. I would like to raise the question that why are so many people dying every day when everything is fine?" Banerjee asked.

Four cases of Black Fungus infection, which has been declared as a pandemic in Rajasthan, have also been found in Bengal. "But the Centre that controls distribution of its medicine, hardly provides the same to the state," Banerjee said, raising a question that "who will give answers to all these questions as the Prime Minister escaped covering his face?"

Lambasting the BJP-led Centre for sending one team after another of Central agencies to Bengal within 24 hours of the formation of her government for the third consecutive term, the Chief Minister raised the question that why not a single team has been sent to Uttar Pradesh where corpse of Covid victims were dumped in the Ganga. "The Centre has turned Namami Ganga into Mrityupuri Ganga as dumping of dead bodies is leading to environmental hazards. One cannot compromise with nature," she said.

When asked whether she would prefer to form a united front against BJP eyeing the 2024 elections, she said: "At present, my priority is to fight against Covid. But, I feel that a team should come up against the BJP which will fight against its dictatorship. I will welcome the stand as the fight should be between democracy and dictatorship."