PTI, KOLKATA: An all-out war broke out between the Centre and the Mamata Banerjee government on Sunday, with the feisty West Bengal leader beginning a sit-in protest at a city landmark over the CBI’s attempt to question the Kolkata Police chief in connection with chit fund scams, insisting it stifled the spirit of “Constitution and federalism”.
In a dramatic showdown with the Modi government, a furious Banerjee, wrapped in a brown woollen shawl, began a sit-in right in front of the Metro Cinema to protest “insults” she faced at the hands of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah, hours after a CBI team that had gone to question Rajeev Kumar was detained in a rare face-off between the police establishments of the Centre and the state.
Banerjee, one of the prime movers behind the effort to cobble together an anti-BJP alliance ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, claimed the CBI knocked on the doors of Kumar without a search warrant. She alleged they want to impose President’s rule in whatever states the opposition is in power.
“I can assure….I am ready to die but I am not ready to bow down before the Modi government and we won’t allow imposition of Emergency…please save India, save democracy, save the Constitution,” she said.
Banerjee asked all opposition parties to unite to bring down the Modi government and, in a rare exhortation by a political leader, called upon personnel of security forces of the Centre and states, besides the Army, to “condemn” the attitude of the Modi government.
The fast-paced development started unfolding as soon as a team of 40-odd agency officers arrived at Kumar’s residence at Loudon Street in central Kolkata this afternoon, but they were stopped by sentries and officials.
CBI joint director Pankaj Srivastava said the agency’s officials had gone to question Kumar in chit fund scam cases and “we would have rounded him up if he hadn’t cooperated with us”.
