KOLKATA, Sep 1: West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee on Monday accused the Centre of “misusing” the Indian Army to dismantle a stage erected here to protest alleged atrocities on Bengali-speaking migrant workers in BJP-ruled states.
Banerjee’s reaction came after the Indian Army partially dismantled the TMC’s stage erected beside the Gandhi statue in the Maidan area in central Kolkata on the grounds that the party had overshot the programme’s permission tenure.
“I do not blame the Army. This is the BJP’s vendetta politics. The double-engine government of the BJP is to be blamed. They are misusing the Army. This is unethical, undemocratic, and it’s a shame that the BJP has stooped to such levels,” Banerjee, who rushed to the spot, alleged while speaking to reporters at the partially dismantled structure.The TMC was holding sit-ins at the site on Saturdays and Sundays for nearly the past one month.
“The BJP wants to misuse the Army for their own purposes. This is a sad message. They do not care about the country’s internal issues or its border security.
They only care about fighting the Trinamool Congress in Bengal. But the more they do this, the worse the result will be for them,” Banerjee claimed.
The Army should have consulted the Kolkata Police before dismantling the stage, the CM maintained.She alleged that about “200 army personnel ran from the site” once they saw her arriving.
“Why are you running, I asked, you are my friends? This is not your fault,” Banerjee stated.
The leader asserted that such actions only strengthened her resolve to strike back harder. (PTI)
