The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday attacked the Trinamool Congress (TMC) over the arrest of West Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee by the Enforcement Directorate in an alleged teachers’ recruitment scam, saying the ruling party in the state was running a “government of corrupts”.
Civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, who was in the city, said the level of corruption in the state was shocking and unprecedented.
“The TMC government has crossed all limits of misgovernance and corruption. The level of corruption in the state is just shocking and unprecedented. The TMC government is no longer a government for the people, it is rather the government of corrupts. The entire government is knee-deep in corruption,” Scindia said.
Information and broadcasting minister Anurag Thakur also hit out at the Mamata Banerjee-led party, calling it “The Mountain of Corruption”.
“Trinamool Congress – TMC – stands for The Mountain of Corruption,” he said in a statement.
Thakur also accused chief minister Banerjee of remaining a “silent spectator” to purported scams unraveling under her rule in the state.
The roots of the scam (over which Chatterjee is arrested) go deep down to the “top-level leaders” of the ruling TMC, including lawmakers and legislators, BJP national vice president Dilip Ghosh alleged.
{{/usCountry}}The roots of the scam (over which Chatterjee is arrested) go deep down to the “top-level leaders” of the ruling TMC, including lawmakers and legislators, BJP national vice president Dilip Ghosh alleged.
{{/usCountry}}Taking a jibe at Banerjee, Ghosh said the chief minister is aware of everything in the world but “unaware of the corruption” of her ministers.
“Mamata Banerjee knows everything about the world and is not aware of the corruption of her ministers. Money used to come to Kalighat (chief minister’s residence). Nobody is untouched. More money is expected to be recovered,” he told news agency ANI.
The BJP’s attack came even as the TMC said it would take action against the minister if he is proven guilty in court.
“The TMC has full faith in the judiciary. If Partha Chatterjee is pronounced guilty by the court, the party and the government will take action against him,” party spokesperson Kunal Ghosh told a press conference.
Senior leader Firhad Hakim, who was also present at the conference, claimed that had Chatterjee joined the BJP, no one would have touched him as the saffron party has turned into a “washing machine”.
In West Bengal’s political lexicon, “washing machine” is a political outfit which allows a leader to come out ‘taint free’ after joining it.
“We have seen that in the past, if a guilty leader joins the BJP, the person goes scot-free. It seems that the BJP is afraid of the huge gathering that the city witnessed at the party’s Martyrs Day rally on July 21,” he said.