MOUNTING A blistering attack on Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, BJP national president Amit Shah Tuesday said if the Trinamool Congress chief sought a CBI inquiry into the sting video that purportedly shows her party leaders accepting bribes, the truth would come out within “36 hours”. “Mamatadi, don’t drag your feet. If you have the guts, if you feel your people are innocent, then you should immediately request the central government for a CBI inquiry into the Narada sting operation,” Shah told reporters in Kolkata. [related-post] The BJP president’s remark comes two days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his first rally for the poll-bound Bengal, took a dig at the government over Mamata’s oft-repeated slogan of ‘parivartan’, asking people “what change did you receive from Didi, Saradha se Narada tak?” Shah said if Mamata reaches out to the Centre for a CBI probe, “we will ensure the truth is out within 36 hours”. Mamata had stormed to power in 2011 over promises that she will remove corruption from the state and, therefore, should “stay true to her words” and “expel” all 11 of her leaders caught in the sting, Shah said. Six of these leaders are contesting the Assembly elections. When pointed out BJP’s “initiative” in getting the Uttarakhand sting operation probed amid suggestions it could do the same in Bengal’s case, Shah said it was the Governor in the hilly state who had sent the CDs requesting a probe and the BJP only acted accordingly. “Let Mamatadi do the same. BJP will always remember the federal structure we have”. He slammed “the Congress and the Communists” for not taking the sting issue up with the Ethics Committee in Rajya Sabha, where they are in majority. “In Lok Sabha, we sent the matter to the Ethics Committee but we can’t do that in the Upper House.” Shah also took a moment to rubbish claims that BJP had been “helping” TMC in the Saradha scam, saying the investigation in the multi-crore chit fund scam was taking time “because the state-appointed SIT had made a complete mess of the entire thing”. He then took on Kolkata police commissioner Rajeev Kumar over his “direct involvement in a failed attempt to carry out a sting” on BJP leader Rahul Sinha, demanding his resignation and a CBI probe into the matter. “Two Special Branch personnel of the Kolkata Police tried to carry out a sting operation. They were caught. A drama was enacted and they were suspended and detained,” he said. He referred to the matter as “a counter sting” which the TMC “had to” conduct. “I have heard a lot about investigative journalists doing sting operations but I had never heard a state government sending policemen to conduct a sting and implicate a political leader,” he said, telling Mamata that she was “trying to malign us because your party has been maligned in Narada sting”. He appealed to the Election Commission to remove the police commissioner from poll duties “to ensure a free and fair election”. The BJP president also attacked the Congress and Left Front for entering into an “electoral understanding”, accusing the CPM-led front of “lacking an ideology”. “What is their ideology? They are fighting Congress in Kerala but forging an alliance in Bengal. They have been exposed,” he said. Shah put to rest all suggestions that the BJP could enter into any alliance with the TMC for the upcoming elections. “This Modibhai-Didibhai theories are all perceptions of the media and creation of the CPM to mislead the people. I, as the president of BJP, am saying this — that there can never be any adjustment between BJP and the TMC, or BJP and the Communists,” he said. Among the “reasons” why BJP cannot have any truck with the TMC, Shah said the ruling party here “plays a politics of appeasement and indulges in vote bank politics by giving shelter to the infiltrators from Bangladesh”. “On one hand, the party is busy setting up bomb-making factories across the state and on the other, it is promoting vote bank politics by using the Bangladeshi infiltrators,” he said, asserting the TMC’s patronage of the infiltrators has become “a national security threat”. Referring to the national citizenship assured to Hindu migrants from Bangladesh, Shah said the BJP government was “committed” to the safety and security of Hindu refugees who migrated due to “religious persecutions.”
