IANS, New Delhi :
Union Minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday slammed opposition parties backing West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s ongoing sit-in protest against the Centre and called them the “Kleptocrat’s Club” that “aspires to capture the reigns of India”.In a blog, Jaitley hit out at Banerjee, dubbing her act as a “disproportionate over reaction” aimed at projecting herself as a “nucleus” of opposition parties.
“Mamata Banerjee’s disproportionate over-reaction to the CBI wanting to interrogate the Kolkata Police chief has flagged several issues for a public discourse. The most important being that a Kleptocrat’s Club now aspires to capture the reigns of India,” he said.
He said that the West Bengal chit fund fraud was unearthed in 2012-13 and its investigations were handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation by the Supreme Court.
“If a police officer is required to be interrogated, how does it become a ‘super emergency’, ‘assault on Federalism’, or ‘destruction of Institutions?” he asked.
The senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader said Banerjee’s strategy in inviting all other opposition leaders to join her protest in Kolkata was to defocus from other opposition aspirants for the highest office and to project herself as the nucleus of India’s opposition.
“Her speeches attack Prime Minister Modi but her strategy is aimed to defocus some of her other colleagues in the opposition and hogging the centre stage,” he said.
Justifying the CBI action, he said the Constitutional framework clearly defines the sharing of functions between the Centre and the state and does not permit an overlap.
