Sinha dismisses Mamata's charge of character assassination

Countering West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's allegation of personal attacks and character assassinations, state BJP president Rahul Sinha today said that Banerjee was protecting her party leaders who openly insulted women.

Sinha was referring to Banerjee's Facebook post yesterday in which she noted that she was "about to be killed on several occasions" and that she "believed in fighting battle politically, not through character assassination". Sinha pointed out that Banerjee was part of the Congress in mid-70s when Emergency was imposed by the ruling party. "Yesterday Mamata Banerjee said that we have made personal attack against her. But the fact is we have never made such attack against her. Rather, she herself has protected her party leaders who have made derogatory remarks against women," Sinha said.

"Whatever attack we have made, we have made it on the basis of political and ideological issues. We don't believe in personal attack or character assassination," said Sinha.

The chief minister in her post had also accused the BJP of "arrogance and irresponsible conduct", which she termed as reminiscent of the Emergency period. Sinha expressed surprise at the state government's opposition to NIA probe into Burdwan blast, wondering how the probe into a terror act constituted a breach of the federal structure.

"Can she explain it to us please," Sinha counterposed. Sinha had yesterday pointed out that Banerjee during her tenure as Lok Sabha MP in 2007 was the member of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs which passed the decision to set up NIA.