At a time when Mamata Banerjee is engaged in a bitter fight against the BJP in the West Bengal Assembly elections, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo wrote to non-BJP party leaders, including Congress president Sonia Gandhi, alleging that the BJP wants to establish a “one-party authoritarian rule” in the country.
The Chief Minister in the letter, released by the TMC on Wednesday, also accused the BJP Government of “vindictively misusing” Central agencies like CBI and the ED to target leaders of non-BJP parties for political gains.
She further alleged that the Modi government has “unleashed” the ED to conduct raids against the TMC and the DMK leaders while the Assembly elections are on in these states.
“Predictably, these institutions target only non-BJP leaders and never those belonging to the BJP,” stated Mamata.
She further alleged that the Modi government “deliberately withholding” transfer of funds to the state governments run by non-BJP parties so they face difficulties in implementing development and welfare schemes for the people.
Accusing the BJP of amassing “unlimited resources from questionable sources”, Mamata claimed that the saffron party was using the resources to topple non-BJP governments and engineer defections in non-BJP parties.
She slammed the Modi government for it’s “reckless and wholesale privatisation” of government organisations and described it as an “attack on democracy.”
“Overall, the Centre-State relations and also the relations between the ruling party at the Centre and Opposition parties, have never been as bad in the history of independent India as they are now and the blame for this rests squarely on the Prime Minister’s authoritarian conduct,” said Mamata.
She further alleged that the BJP wants to make it impossible for the Opposition parties to function and aims to dilute the powers of the state government.
“The BJP wants to make it impossible for non-BJP parties to exercise their Constitutional rights and freedoms. It wants to dilute the powers of the state governments and downgrade them to mere municipalities. In short, it wants to establish an one-party authoritarian rule in India,” stated Mamata.
In a bid to unite the Opposition parties against the BJP, she said that the time has come for Opposition party leaders for launching an “united and effective struggle” against the BJP.
“As the chairperson of the All India Trinamool Congress, I shall work wholeheartedly with you and all other like minded political parties. We can win this battle only with unity of hearts and minds, and by presenting a credible alternative to the people of India,” she stated.
Mamata urged the Opposition party leaders to “deliberate on these issues and chart a plan of action” after the Assembly elections.