Mamata Banerjee: Centre planning to arrest all Opposition leaders

“They (Centre) have sent a notice to Arvind (Kejriwal). Five-six MPs have said their phones have been hacked… Let them continue to do it. We cannot humiliate our motherland,” she said, referring to the ED summoning Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in an excise policy-linked money-laundering case and recent statements made by Opposition MPs, including TMC MP Mahua Moitra, claiming that they had received an alert from Apple warning them of “state-sponsored attackers” trying to hack their phones.

Asked about the arrest of state Forest Minister Jyoti Priya Mallick by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), Banerjee said, “This is a political question. This is not the appropriate platform to answer. My party will answer (this). Of course, he (Mallick) is our minister.”

Mallick was the latest minister to be arrested by the central probe agency.

The 66-year-old TMC leader was arrested from his Kolkata residence in the wee hours last Friday after a marathon search and questioning by ED officials in connection with alleged irregularities in the public distribution system (PDS).

The ED has claimed that money received as kickbacks from the ration scam was laundered allegedly by the minister through three shell companies.

Mallick, who now holds the portfolio of Forest Department, was the Food and Supplies minister from 2011 to 2021.

Praising Mallick’s performance as the Food and Supplies Minister, Banerjee claimed that the alleged ration scam took place during the Left Fron regime and said: “Do you know how we worked for digital ration cards? How we cancelled one crore false ration cards?… When I came to power (in 2011), truth be told, there were 1 crore fake ration cards. Those who are talking lofty things… they during the Left Front period… used to collect that ration (using fake ration cards). Where would the money go? Do you have any queries about that? It took us seven to eight years to do this work. I cancelled 1 crore fake ration cards. Many brokers took people’s rations and sold them outside. I have filed cases against them, got them arrested, and submitted chargesheets…”

“We were forced to buy rice from the Food Corporation of India. But one day they suddenly stopped selling it to us. The ration system was almost shut. Then our government decided that we would buy rice from farmers. I have been buying rice from my farmer for the past 4-5 years. I am giving free ration,” the CM said,

“I tried to cancel many ration shops. I could not. We have to obey the court order. Every time we caught a broker, every time we talked about cancelling ration shops, we had to go to the court… (They) can’t show a single family who asked for ration and didn’t get it. The Central government also praised our efforts to digitise 100 per cent card,” she said, adding, “It took time to do that. All is clear now.”

In a veiled attack at Leader of Opposition in Assembly and BJP MLA Suvendu Adhikari, Banerjee said, “Does anyone know how much land he sold for how much money as the chairman of Haldia Development Authority during his term as a minister?”

Adhikari, who won from Nandigram in the 2021 Assembly elections, was appointed in the Haldia Development Authority in 2020 while serving as the state Transport Minister in the Mamata Banerjee-led government. In December 2020, Adhikari joined the BJP.

Reacting to the CM’s remarks, Adhikari said, “If she has guts, she should publish all documents. I defeated her earlier (in Nandigram) and will defeat her again.”