"Do not insult me like this": Mamata Banerjee to PM
Kolkata : West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday slammed PM Narendra Modi's government a day after bitter face-off over a meeting to review the damage caused due to cyclone Yaas.
"Don't insult me like this. We have got a landslide victory, is that why you are behaving like this? You tried everything and lost. Why are you quarrelling with us every day?" Ms Banerjee said at a news conference "to set things straight".
Her outburst came after the Centre called one of its top bureaucrats back to Delhi. According to sources in a news report, CM Mamata Banerjee had skipped a meeting led by PM Narendra Modi, following which several BJP leaders posted photo of a vacant seat during the meeting on social media.
Mamata Banerjee had met PM Modi for a quick 15-minute as his flight landed and then skipped the review meeting, the government had said.
CM Mamata Banerjee explained that she had to go to a coastal district, plans for which were earlier announced, and for the same she had taken permission from the PM.
"I had made plans to visit cyclone-hit areas. I had to travel to Sagar and Digha to see the damage caused by Cyclone Yaas. All my plans were made and ready... then suddenly we get a call that Prime Minister wants to visit Bengal to assess the situation after the cyclone," Ms Banerjee said.
She also rejected government’s claim that she made the PM and the governor wait for 30 minutes, instead she said that she waited for 20 minutes at the tarmac.
"By the time were reached the place where the PM-CM meeting was to be held, we found out that the PM had already arrived there some time ago and that there was a meeting going on. We were asked to wait outside, told that there will be no entry at the moment because a meeting is going on. We waited patiently for a while. Then, when we asked again, we were told that no one can enter for the next one hour," she said.
"Then someone told us that the meeting has moved to the conference hall, so the Chief Secretary and I decided to go there. When we reached there, we saw the PM was in a meeting with the Honourable Governor, central leaders and even some MLAs of the opposition party," Ms Banerjee said.
"This was clearly against the brief. It was supposed to be only a PM-CM meeting. So, we decided to submit our report to the PM and then with the Prime Minister's permission we went to Digha. I sought the Prime Minister's permission three times," she said.
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