Mamata Banerjee compares situation in Bengal to ‘military coup’

“I am vocal against demonetisation and thus this coupe. I am for people. Why aren’t they doing this elsewhere. They are saying Manipur, Assam and Nagaland. Who has crosschecked their claims. Manipur and Nagaland are troubled places. Army is already there. Assam it’s their own government. So who knows what the truth is,” said West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee.

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Also Read: Army exercise with police coordination, says Eastern Command

She added, “Why just Bengal. What about Odisha and Bihar. We’ve spoken to them, there’s no such thing there. Maybe they’ll start with us and later, they will go forward and do the same in other states where there is opposition”.

“I’ve the greatest respect for the army, but the BJP is using them for their political motives,” she added.Banerjee maintained that barring one district, south 24 Parganas, the army had been deployed in all others without informing the state government in what she termed was a “move against the constitution” aimed at “disrupting governance”.

The army, meanwhile has maintained, that the presence of army personnel in the state was “routine” and in a Tweet, the army maintained, “Routine exercise in all NE states. In Assam @ 18 places, Arunanchal@13, WB@19, Manipur@6, Nagaland@5, Meghalaya@5, Tripura & Mizoram@1@adgpi.”

Routine exercise in all NE states. In Assam @ 18 places, Arunanchal@13, WB@19, Manipur@6, Nagaland@5, Meghalaya@5, Tripura & Mizoram@1@adgpi

— EasternCommand_IA (@easterncomd) December 1, 2016

However Bengal Chief secretary, Home Secretary and Kolkata police commissioner maintained that no contact was made by the army. Kolkata Police added that they had, in fact, refuted the army exercise citing “security” reasons and “traffic”.