A verbal brawl ensued between the ruling Trinamool Congress and the Bengal Opposition parties, including the BJP and the Left, after Mamata Banerjee upon her arrival from an official trip of Spain and Dubai claimed that this was the “most successful trip” in terms of State’s business interest during her tenure as Chief Minister.
Hours after Mamata’s assertion of her unprecedentedly successful foreign sojourn, Bengal Opposition leader Suvendu Adhikari accused the TMC with “hobnobbing with corruption (read corrupt people)” inviting an immediate backlash from the Bengal ruling outfit.
TMC spokesperson and a member of Mamata’s 12-day mission to Spain and Dubai hit back saying she was “more trustworthy” than (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi alleging how he embarked on foreign trips when Manipur burnt.
Earlier Ghosh had compared the Prime Minister with Roman emperor Nero.
Adhikari had earlier written on the X (earlier Twitter) that “Those who have tried to make an attempt to draw a parallel between Prime Minister … Narendra Modi’s foreign trips with … Mamata Banerjee’s foreign vacation … let me tell you the difference … his strategic trips was aimed ‘to enhance the glory of the country’ in the world but the other trip of the Chief Minister was tinged with corruption.”
Contrasting the Prime Minister’s success in the G20 Summit post which India was being regarded as Viswa Mitra (friend of the world), Adhikari said, Mamata’s success was limited to her hobnobbing with the “G420 Group” (apparently the INDIA alliance).
Former BJP State president Dilip Ghosh too attacked Mamata for claiming success saying, “In the past too she had made foreign trips …but what was the result … a big zero … let us see what comes this time round.”
Hitting back, TMC spokesperson Ghosh said how the Prime Minister toured the world when Manipur was burning.
He said, “PM Narendra Modi embarked on foreign trips when Manipur was burning. He jetted out to the United States. France and UAE but didn’t bother to visit Manipur even once. Spare us the charade! We all know which leader is trustworthy and who is not!”
Taking a jibe at Adhikari for dropping the word “corruption,” TMC leader Bratya Basu said “look who is talking about corruption… the man who was seen accepting cash in the Narada scam… the man whose name figures in FIRs is today lecturing others on corruption”.
The Left on the other hand stuck to Mamata’s foreign trip asking her to make public the details of her meetings and the number of proposals of investments that she had received.
“Every year she hosts mega business summits attended by a galaxy of businessmen but nothing comes up after that … this time also there will be nothing because she has been identified with among the investors as a person who drives away industries like the one she did at Singur and Nandigram …
“People have not forgotten how she used dynamites to blast off the massive shed at Tata Motors… how she thwarted the attempts to make a chemical hub at Nandigram by inciting a false movement … all to come to power … and this is the same BJP that allied with her and shared the dais with her then,” said CPI(M) Central Committee member Sujan Chakrabarty.
