Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee broke her silence on Thursday linking the arrest of senior Congress leader P Chidambaram to the “sagging democratic culture” and the “suffocating the political climate” in the country.
Speaking to reporters, the Chief Minister said, “I will not say much about the legality of the matter as I am not the right person to do that but I am certainly concerned about the process of arresting such a senior politician … the way he was arrested,” reminding, “he was the former Finance Minister and Home Minister of India and a senior parliamentarian” who deserved a dignified treatment.
The high drama around Chidambaram’s arrest was not worth it, the Chief Minister said, adding, “the way his matter was handled was sad and bad. It was really very bad and made me extremely sad.”
All the pillars of Indian democracy were under attack under the present Government, Banerjee said reminding how the “Indian democracy is in a bad shape. It is literally crying in the wilderness.”
Incidentally, a number of Trinamool Congress leaders, including Ministers and MPs, were facing corruption charges and were being investigated by the central investigating agencies like the CBI and ED.
Condemning the way the former Union Minister was arrested, another Trinamool leader and Minister Firhad Hakim said “this Government will not allow the Opposition to thrive in India. They have decided to put all the dissenting voices behind the bars.
Attacking the Narendra Modi Government for taking the entire Opposition hostage, Congress leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said “there is a deep-rooted conspiracy behind Chidambaram’s arrest. He is the person who has been challenging the Government’s policies at various forums including parliament. He was exposing the Government through his columns in various Indian and foreign journals which they are finding difficult to counter, and so they have silenced him by putting him behind the bar.”
Chowdhury also said that “the country is heading towards political insolvency and big economic slowdown against which thisGovernment has no answer. In order to turn the people’s attention from these burning issues they are creating new political drama … but the Congress will take the issue to the people of India and fight it tooth and nail.”
