Mamata Banerjee 'softening' stand against RSS, Modi to salvage 'corrupt-criminal syndicate': CPIM

New Delhi: The CPI(M) has lashed out at West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, alleging that she has "softened" her stand against the BJP, RSS and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in an attempt to "salvage the corrupt-criminal syndicate the TMC has become." The latest editorial of the party mouthpiece People's Democracy has quoted Banerjee's statements at press conferences and said that she "has been making some new discoveries recently".

"Finding virtue in the RSS and in Narendra Modi signals desperation on the part of the TMC supremo to somehow salvage the corrupt-criminal syndicate the TMC has become.

"However, such dalliance with the Sangh-BJP combine should not come as a surprise. The rise of the Trinamool Congress as an anti-Communist force in West Bengal is a record punctuated by alliances with the BJP including Mamata Banerjee being a cabinet minister in the Vajpayee government," it said.

The Left party's attack on the Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief comes as it is seeking to reclaim the political turf it lost to the BJP in West Bengal where the saffron party has emerged as the principal opposition.

The editorial goes on to quote Banerjee as saying at a press conference that the RSS "'was not that bad".

"Following this, she has made another discovery - she does not believe Prime Minister Narendra Modi is behind the misuse of central agencies such as the CBI and the enforcement directorate,"the editorial said.

The editorial quoted her as saying in the legislative assembly, "You are possibly not aware that these agencies are no longer under the prime minister's office (PMO). They are now controlled by the union home ministry".

It pointed out that officially the CBI is under the department of personnel and training under the PMO.

"She has, thus, exonerated the prime minister by misstating the fact," the editorial said.

Terming her stand "placatory", the Left party said that these remarks from Banerjee have come after a "concrete political step" taken by the TMC leader to help the BJP during the vice-presidential election.

"When the opposition decided to put up a common candidate for the vice-presidential election, the TMC decided to abstain.

"The lame excuse given was that they were not properly consulted. That the BJP's candidate was the then governor of West Bengal, Jagdeep Dhankar, made this decision to abstain highly unusual.

"Why did Mamata Banerjee decide not to support an Opposition candidate against a man who had tormented her and her government for a full three years is something even her supporters cannot explain," the party said in the editorial.

It said that Banerjee's "sudden softness" for the RSS and the prime minister probably stems from the "serious predicament" that the TMC government finds itself in.

"The Partha Chatterjee affair which exposed the sordid corruption in the government has caused widespread revulsion and anger among the public. What has been long suspected or known has now come out starkly before the people.

"More skeletons are tumbling out of the TMC cupboard. Mamata Banerjee feels imperiled by the ongoing ED investigations into the coal mining scam in which her nephew and political heir Abhishek Banerjee and his family members are being interrogated," it claimed.