Centre running parallel govt through governors: Mamata Banerjee

“People from the BJP are threatening us with arrest, saying the Election Commission is under them. The Prime Minister should look into this. One cannot bulldoze states in the name of governance,” Mamata added. State BJP leader Joy Banerjee had recently said that the Election Commission was under the NDA government, after which he had to apologise.

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The attack on the Centre was a departure from Mamata’s recent conciliatory tone on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the NDA government. The shifting of gears comes in the run-up to Bengal Assembly elections, due next year.

“They (Centre) are making things communal, looking at the religion of people killed in accidents to vitiate the atmosphere. If two people die in West Bengal, the NIA is rushed to the state, but when 100 people died in Madhya Pradesh not a word is said because it has a BJP government. This is not good governance,” Mamata said. The reference was to NIA officials being sent to Bengal after the Burdwan blast and to the recent dynamite blasts in Jhabua.

She advised the Centre to restrict itself to making policies and administering sectors such as defence and railways and “nothing else”. She also slammed the Centre for disbanding the Planning Commission, which she said was the brain child of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. “The government is running without any planning. They have also disbanded the National Development Council where the CMs used to get a common platform. You have formed NITI Aayog and made your own man its chairman…it’s not about our ideological differences but we are having issues in functioning,” she said.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, too, trained his guns on the governor/L-G. He described the office as one of three instruments of central interference in the state, the other two being the CBI and central funding.

Mamata was the only chief minister to share the stage with Kejriwal at the conclave. No other CM attended the event. Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar met Kejriwal earlier in the day but did not stay for the conclave. He said the day’s proceedings had not been a success and discussions would have to continue in future.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar wrote a letter expressing support and regret for not being able to attend. He wrote that those who were the flag-bearers of cooperative federalism before elections were now systematically destroying institutions that were built for it. “The Prime Minister had promised to give special status to Bihar but till date it has not been fulfilled. He is making big announcements for Bihar considering the elections but he is not even looking at problems of Odisha and Bengal,” he said.

Chief ministers of Mizoram and Puducherry also wrote to Kejriwal expressing their support. Mizoram CM P U Lalthanhawla said that AGMUT cadre states should have separate cadres.

Both Kejriwal and Mamata denied that the meet was a precursor to a possible political front.