Hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi blamed the Trinamool Congress and the Left Front for doing great disservice to farmers’ cause by their recent acts — like refusing Central Kisan Samman Nidhi funds for their aid and inciting farmers’ protest in Delhi — the Bengal ruling outfit and Left parties hit back in equal measures.

Taking on the Prime Minister, senior TMC leader Saugato Roy said it is the arrogance of the Central Government and the PM himself and not the Bengal Government which was hindering the flow of Central Kisan Samman Nidhi funds.

Roy said, “The Prime Minister is saying only half truth by claiming that the State Government is blocking the Prime Minister Kisan Samman funds… the fact is we only want to get the funds channeled through the State Government…the Centre must not bypass the federal norms…if it does so then where is there a need of a State Government to be in place.”

Earlier the Prime Minister while delivering a speech singled out Bengal saying the TMC Government and the Left Front were ruining the future of the farmers. He alleged that the State Government was blocking the passage of the Kisan Samman funds.

 “While all other States are receiving the funds the Bengal Government is stopping that from happening depriving the farmers of early Rs 6,000 … all for narrow political reasons,” Modi said accusing the Left Front too with double standards as “they are hobnobbing with the same people in Punjab with whom they are fighting in Bengal… the condition of the farmers of Bengal is not good.”

Reacting to the Prime Minister’s remarks Roy said that the farmers in Bengal were better placed than their counterparts in the other parts of the country adding “the Bengal farmers are not crying for your help.”

He also reminded how Mamata Banerjee-led the Singur and Nandigram movements which became a landmark in the political history of free India.

The Left too hit back at the Prime Minister saying he was not saying the truth.

CPI(M) politburo member Md Salim said, “We have never seen a liar of a Prime Minister like him who can say anything to further his political interests … today he is talking all kinds of nonsense but it was the same person and his party that had appointed Mamata as its agent to demolish the Left movement in Bengal… we remember how he saidafter TMC came to power that ‘it will take some time for her to fill the holes (gaddas) left by the Left Front… it was he who told the Bengal audience that BJP in the Centre and Mamata in the

State would mean two laddoos in the hands of the people of the State …today the BJP is reaping the harvest of the misdeeds and communal seeds sowed by Mamata in Bengal.”