Mamata Banerjee crossed all limit by questioning India Army's routine exercise: BJP

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Shrikant Sharma on Saturday said West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had crossed all limits by criticizing the government and questioning the Indian Army.

"She has crossed all the limits. While condemning Prime Minister Narendra Modi, she didn't even bother that she is criticizing the Indian Army and questioning their routine exercise," he told ANI adding that the TMC leader is adopting dictatorial style of leadership.

Sharma's statement came in the backdrop of the controversy surrounding the deployment of the Indian Army at two toll plazas near the new state government secretariat in Kolkata.

He further said that Mamata was levelling baseless and false allegations at the Centre and should apologise for the same.

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar wrote a letter to Banerjee on Friday, saying her allegations could "adversely" impact the morale of the armed forces.

Banerjee hit back over his "wild assertion". She maintained that the Ministry of Defence had not taken prior permission of the state government for the large deployment of army personnel in civilian areas.

On December 1, as part of exercises across Bengal and several northeast states, the army had deployed unarmed soldiers at check points and toll plazas to note the movement of vehicles which could be diverted in case of a major disaster, military operation or war.

Seeing soldiers at a toll plaza just 500 metres away from her new secretariat in Kolkata, left Mamata infuriated and she refused to leave her office until the army moved its troops out. She left her office 30 hours later.

The West Bengal government said the army was denied permission to hold the exercises. The army, however, produced correspondence with the state's police and civil administration, and also asserted that the exercises are held annually.