Mamata charges BJP govt of colluding with Left parties

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday accused the BJP-led government at the Centre of colluding with Left parties and said the country should move on its inbuilt principle of inclusiveness and not on the path of Duryodhana and Dushashana.

Maintaining that no one is above the law and a criminal should be punished, Banerjee wondered why the CBI is yet to summon a single CPI(M) leader in corruption or chit fund cases.

"All the opposition parties in the country are being targetted. They have put Congress leader P Chidambaram behind the bars. All the opposition leaders are being targetted except those from the CPI(M) and Left. May be they have an understanding with the BJP," Banerjee said in the Assembly.

All the chit funds in West Bengal started functioning during the Left Front regime and they downed their shutters in 2012-13 after the Trinamool Congress came to power in 2011, she said.

"We arrested Saradha group chairman Sudipto Sen in 2013. We took up measures to return the money looted by chit fund companies. Later when the case was transferred to the CBI, it became their responsibility. But why not a single CPI (M) leader was touched by CBI in all these years? Do you (Left) have any understanding with the BJP?" Banerjee said.

Left Front legislature party leader Sujan Chakraborty objected to her comments that came in the backdrop of several TMC leaders and ministers being either arrested or questioned by the CBI in chit fund scam.

Commenting on the atmosphere of intolerance in the country, Banerjee said India should move forward on the path of its inbuilt principle of inclusiveness and not on the path shown Mahabharata characters Duryodhana and Dushasana who wanted to divide the Kuru clan.

"It is a shame that an eminent person like (economist) Amartya Sen is being verbally assaulted. The country can't move forward on the path of Duryodhana and Dushasana. It should follow the country's inbuilt principle of inclusiveness," she said.

Sen, a Nobel laureate, has been attacked by BJP leaders several times in the past for opposing various issues favoured by the saffron party.