'Don't humiliate me': Mamata's top quotes on skipping meeting with PM Modi

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has explained why she skipped a meeting scheduled with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, alleging the central government was humiliating her.

Banerjee held a press conference in Kolkata on Saturday to allege that her government is being harassed as it worked to control the coronavirus pandemic. She objected to the central government transferring Alapan Bandyopadhyay, Bengal’s top civil servant as chief secretary, and circulating photographs of empty chairs reserved for the chief minister and her team for their meeting with Modi on Friday.

Here are select quotes from her conference:

• “Within minutes of my taking oath, the governor issued a statement of  some incidents that took place when the state was under the Election Commission.”

• “You cannot digest defeat, that is why from day one you started all these actions.”

• ”If the Prime Minister tells me, ‘you touch my feet, I will help Bengal’, that also I am ready to do. But please don’t humiliate me like this. Don’t insult me like this. Don’t defame Bengal.”

• “You are not only disturbing me, but you are also disturbing my secretariat. Why are you behaving like this? We won by a landslide. Is that your worry?”

• “When we reached there, we saw that the Prime Minister was already there, we thought it our duty to meet him and submit our report.”

The BJP, the main Opposition party in Bengal, hit back by saying Banerjee and Bandyopadhyay had insulted the Prime Minister by not attending the meeting.

BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari said: “She (Banerjee) is trying to show her arrogance and is indulging in petty politics.”