Mamata slams Shah for his ‘TMC govt won't survive beyond 2025’ remarks

 CM seeks SC monitored probe into Ex-J&K Guv’s comment on 2019 Pulwama attack

PTI, Kolkata, Apr 17 : West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday slammed Home Minister Amit Shah for his “undemocratic” and “unconstitutional” remarks that the TMC government won’t survive beyond 2025 if the BJP wins 35 seats in the next year’s Lok Sabha polls.

She also called for his resignation over the comments he had made during a rally on April 14.

“On Friday, Amit Shah addressed a rally. That is fine. But how can the Union home minister of the country talk about toppling a democratically elected government of a state? Is the constitution of the country being changed? “He can never make such a comment that if BJP wins 35 Lok Sabha seats, the state government won’t complete the full term,” Banerjee told reporters here.

The Mamata Banerjee government is scheduled to complete its third term in 2026.

While addressing a public rally at Suri in Birbhum district, Shah set a target for the BJP to win 35 Lok Sabha seats from West Bengal and said the incumbent Mamata Banerjee government in the state won’t survive beyond 2025 if the goal is achieved.

The TMC supremo claimed Shah’s remarks prove that “a conspiracy is being hatched to dislodge the state government”, and added that the home minister should not speak like a “goon”.

Referring to CBI’s summons to her Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal, Banerjee said, “Are they trying to send out a message that a chief minister can be summoned and questioned? If a CM can be questioned, why can’t the home minister be questioned too?” she said.

Banerjee claimed that the BJP won’t return to power in the next parliamentary polls, reiterating the appeal to the opposition leaders to unite against the saffron party ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. 

The chief minister on Monday also demanded a Supreme Court-monitored investigation into  former Jammu and Kashmir governor Satyapal Malik's statement regarding the  2019 Pulwama attack in which 40 CRPF jawans were killed. 

Speaking to reporters at the state secretariat, Mamata alleged that it was the Centre's fault that India lost so many jawans. 

"What Satyapal Malik-ji said is scary.  He claimed that the central government, for mere polarisation of voters and to create a sense of fake nationalism, ignored the security of CRPF jawans. According to him, the Pulwama attack was an intelligence failure," she said. "We had raised this issue back in 2019 too, but since at that time, it was a matter of nation first, we didn't want to say anything against the government. However, the truth has come out today. The BJP government was in power in 2019, and it was the Centre's fault that we have lost the lives of our jawans," she added.

Mamata demanded a Supreme Court-monitored investigation into the claims made by Malik in an interview to a news portal. "If  the highest chair is involved, then it is only the Supreme Court that can conduct an impartial investigation. I have total confidence in the Supreme Court, only the judiciary can save this country. We need to have an inquiry into what happened in Pulwama, then only people will get to know the truth," she said.

There has been no reaction from the government since Malik's interview was released on Friday, but the BJP said that there were serious questions about his credibility and cited various statements made by him in recent years.

The Opposition Congress demanded that the Centre reveal the outcome of the probe into the attack, and asked why the paramilitary personnel were "denied" aircraft and made to commute by road despite terror threat as claimed by Malik in the interview.