Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday dripped sarcasm, holding up a tea saucer to signify an empty platter of central assistance and spoke of a “garland” of myriad central advisories, as she took on the Narendra Modi government for the second day running.
She also sent across a message for a united fight against the pandemic, appealing to the BJP to set aside its election-driven political machinations for another day, pointed out that the party was from “outside Bengal” and drew a distinction between her policies aimed at providing succour to crisis-affected people and the BJP’s alleged repressive tactics.
Picking up from where she had left off during Modi’s meeting with chief ministers on Monday, Mamata ended a 12-day hiatus to appear before the media and fire a shot across the bows of the Centre and the BJP over the coronavirus crisis.
During the 52-minute news conference at state secretariat Nabanna, a confident Mamata minced no words, pausing her avowed spell of not politicising the pandemic despite intense provocation and mud-slinging from the BJP.
“Whenever we meet the Prime Minister… we think we will get something, but we get nothing,” the Bengal chief minister said, referring to the latest meeting of chief ministers with Modi where she told him directly that some of his colleagues were playing politics with her state and specifically named Union home minister Amit Shah, seated behind the Prime Minister, several times.
Asked if Modi had promised a package to bail out the state — the media conference was held hours before the Prime Minister announced a Rs 20 lakh crore financial aid for the country — Mamata picked up a saucer and held it forward on her palms.
“Has he? What do you see, tell me? I don’t have a thala (platter) here, this is a small plate. Entirely khali (empty)? A khali plate. Imagine this on a much larger scale. We have been asking but they are not giving, claiming there is nothing,” she said.
In the meeting with the Prime Minister, Mamata’s demands had included release of Rs 52,972 crore in dues to Bengal, extension by one year of an immediate moratorium on debt servicing by the state government and permission to borrow directly from the RBI at the repo rate (the rate at which the central bank lends to commercial banks).
“We are not beggars, we are only asking for what is due to us. We had no income in two months and we had to do all the spending. That’s Rs 12,000 crore gone, per month,” Mamata said.
“All we get from the Centre are advisories, through the day, by the dozen. I told them yesterday. Will knit a garland of these advisories and wear it around our neck. That will fill people’s stomachs,” she added.