Kolkata: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday said she doesn't believe that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is behind the alleged excesses of Central agencies in the state and blamed the Centre and a section of local BJP leaders for misusing these agencies to serve their interests.
While speaking on a resolution moved by Trinamool Congress (TMC) party's chief whip Nirmal Ghosh in the state Assembly on Monday, she spoke against the "excesses" of the Central probe agencies.
Banerjee urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ensure that the agenda of the Union government and the interests of his party (BJP) do not get mixed up.
"The CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) is not under the Prime Minister's department. It is under the Home department. There have been 21 raids by the ED (Enforcement Directorate) in Kolkata. There have been 108 cases initiated by the ED and the CBI in the state in the last three to four months. I do not believe that the Central agencies are acting at the behest of the Prime minister. The BJP leaders are behind this," she remarked.
Alleging that the present Union government is behaving in a dictatorial way, Banerjee reiterated that the resolution is not against anyone in particular but against the biased functioning of the Central agencies. "I am not against a probe conducted by the CBI. But we want the investigating agencies to function impartially," she added.
She made it clear that the TMC government will not function like slaves under the Central government or like bonded labours but the Bengal government will be independent-minded.
Banerjee slammed the BJP alleging that Central agencies and "ill-gotten money of the party" were being used to dislodge elected state governments run by non-BJP parties.
"You (BJP) dislodged the Maharashtra government. Where did the money come from? You wanted to bring down the Jharkhand government. I prevented it," she claimed.
Banerjee raised questions over the success rate of the CBI in Bengal and pointed out their failure in the Rabindranath Tagore's Noble prize missing case, mass murder at Nandigram and Tapasi Malik murder case in Singur.
"We want the Union government to be assertive and proactive and not torture the common people. It should not discriminate from case to case. If somebody is guilty, strong action should be taken against the offender," Banerjee said. Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari said such a "resolution against the CBI and the ED" is against the rules and regulations of the Assembly.
The resolution was passed through division, with 189 voting in favour of it, 69 against and one MLA abstaining from voting.
Meanwhile, soon after this, showing utmost political courtesy, she walked upto the Opposition MLAs' benches and wished them Puja greetings with folded hands, who in turn, acknowledged them.