Mamata takes a dig at Centre, blames agencies for V G Siddhartha's demise

In the run-up to this year's General Elections, Banerjee had alleged that various agencies and institutions were being used by the Centre to intimidate political parties

In the wake of the death of V G Siddhartha, founder of Cafe Coffee Day, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee took at a dig at the Centre over its policies and the state of economy alleging that the industry and the Indian economy were in a bad shape.

Expressing her shock over the incident, she wrote on Twitter, “From what he has expressed, it appears that he was greatly depressed due to harassment and pressure from different agencies for which he could not run his business in a peaceful manner. This he could not resist”.

“I hear from different sources that captains of industry in the country are under pressure; some of them have left the country and some are contemplating to move out. All the opposition political parties are afraid of horse trading and harassment with political vendetta”, she said.

In the run-up to this year’s General Elections, Banerjee had repeatedly alleged that various agencies and institutions were being used by the Centre to intimidate political parties into submission and socio-economic and other factors were forcing people, including investors, to leave the country.

“My appeal to the government is that when you have been elected, you have to work in a peaceful manner so that people are confident and that political vendetta and agencies do not destroy the future of the country”, she said on the social media platform.

She had also alleged that the BJP was planning to topple the then Congress-led Karnataka government and the party was using cash as well as intimidation to get votes.

Banerjee said while the economic growth of the country had nosedived to as low as 5.8 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2018-19, the lowest in the last five years, unemployment had increased to the highest level in the last 45 years.

“Industry and agriculture and creation of employment is the future of our country. If industry is demoralised, then there will be no economic and employment growth. As a result, more and more people will become jobless”, she said.

As part of its disinvestment plan, the Centre is planning to offload government assets, including Ordnance Factory Board, Air India among others.