My father helped many with Left links get jobs: TMC minister Udayan
Guha’s father was a minister in the erstwhile Left government in the state.
3 min read
Udayan Guha joined TMC in 2015. (Express Photo)SENIOR TRINAMOOL Congress (TMC) leader and North Bengal Development Minister Udayan Guha on Saturday claimed that his father, Forward Bloc leader Kamal Guha, had given jobs to many people affiliated to that party.
Guha’s father was a minister in the erstwhile Left government in the state.
“He (Kamal Guha) committed corruption for the sake of his party. I call it corruption. If you take Rs 5, it is not corruption, but if you take Rs 50,000 or Rs 5 lakh, it is corruption? It can’t be. I will now say to save my father that he did what he thought was right. My father ensured employment for many people.”
In the past, other TMC leaders, including Madan Mitra and Sabina Yasmin, have claimed that giving jobs to party workers is “not corruption.” This is seen as a bid by the ruling TMC, facing a string of “corruption” allegations, to counter those claims by highlighting that similar instances also happened during the erstwhile Left government in West Bengal.
On Thursday, former minister and one of the main accused in the school recruitment scam, Partha Chatterjee, alleged that CPI(M) leader Sujan Chakraborty, BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari and Dilip Ghosh sent him lists of candidates to be given jobs in schools. However, all three leaders denied the allegations.
Within the TMC too, a section of leaders are unhappy over the counter allegation strategy. A senior TMC leader, who did not wish to be named, said, “It is true that many got jobs during Left rule because they were CPI(M) workers or a relative of party workers. But, they did not violate the norms [of hiring] and they did not get jobs by giving money. But this [school recruitment scam] is an organised crime, one cannot label this as giving jobs to party workers.”
CPI(M) leader Sujan Chakraborty said, “They [TMC] are trying to divert attention from their own corruption. The tactic won’t work because the people understand everything.”
Leader of Opposition and BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari said, “It’s a weak ‘screenplay’. It won’t be much profitable for the ruling party. Trinamool cannot hide their corruption.”
On Friday, State Education Minister Bratya Basu alleged that there had been “discrepancies” in the appointment of the wife of a CPI(M) leader at a college during the erstwhile Left Front rule and claimed that such requirements had taken place by production of a chit.
CPI(M) central committee member Sujan Chakraborty, who was targeted by Basu, described the claim as a “desperate attempt to divert the attention of the people from the corruption charges against TMC leaders.”
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