Bengal governor cautions CM against defaming Indian Army, Mamata calls it 'voice of Centre'

Kolkata: West Bengal Governor KN Tripathi on Saturday sternly cautioned against “defaming” and “letting down” the Indian Army in the wake of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee alleging that soldiers extorted money from truck drivers during their deployment at toll plazas.

“Every person should take care in making allegation against a responsible organisation like the Indian Army. Don’t let down the army. Don’t defame the army,” Tripathi said here when asked about Banerjee’s accusation that the soldiers extorted money from truck drivers.

Chief Minister Banerjee spent Thursday night at the state secretariat and stayed put there on Friday protesting deployment of the army at toll plazas in West Bengal allegedly without informing her government – an issue that snowballed into a major row causing disruptions in Parliament.

The central government and the army rubbished the allegations, saying too much was being read into a routine exercise.

In the Lok Sabha, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said the army was conducting a routine exercise in Kolkata. The Eastern Command showed papers detailing the correspondence between the army and the local police on the issue and said the state government and the police knew about it in advance.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee dubbed Governor’s statement that one should be careful while making any allegation against the Army as ‘unfortunate’ and said he was speaking in the “voice of Central Government”. Banerjee’s statement came in the wake of the Governor virtually disapproving her remarks on the deployment of Army at toll plazas. “The Governor is speaking in the voice of Central Government! He was not in the city for about 8 days,” she said in a statement. “Before making statements, all details should have been checked. It is very unfortunate”, she said.