Mamata slams Modi for taking Covid 19 situation “lightly”

Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday slammed
Prime Minister Narendra Modi for taking the Covid 19 situation in the country “lightly” and
“evading” queries from various states on vaccines, oxygen and covid 19 medicines.
Ms Banerjee described Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s meeting with chief ministers as
“casual and super flop” as, she said, none of the chief ministers, including herself, were given
a chance to speak.
After attending a meeting with the Prime Minister on the Covid-19 situation, the chief minister
said all chief ministers were made to sit like “puppets” and claimed a “dictatorship” is prevailing
in the country.
Accusing the Prime Minister of being “arrogant” and “casual”, Ms Banerjee said, “So many
states were represented. No one was allowed to speak. What do they think? Are we bonded
labourers or puppets? Only they matter? They are completely demolishing the federal structure.”
“Today the federal structure is being bulldozed. The Centre has time to build massive buildings
and statues but has no time to listen to the chief ministers,” she said.
The chief minister said the country is at a critical juncture but the PM is so casual (in his
approach). It was a casual and super flop meeting.
“Delhi’s Shahhenshah is saying sab theek hai (all is well) when everyday people are dying,” she alleged.
Ms Banerjee lambasted the Uttar Pradesh government for dumping suspected dead covid 19
patients in river Ganga and wondered why central teams or the CBI are not sent there to take
note of the incident.
“When some things happened in our state, they sent central teams. How many central teams
were sent to Uttar Pradesh?” the chief minister questioned.
“On this day 10 years ago, I took oath as the Chief Minister for the first time to serve the
people of West Bengal as we embarked on a new path for the state’s development… I’m
grateful to Maa-Mati-Manush for always blessing me with their trust. I pledge to take Bangla
to even greater heights,” Ms Banerjee added.
Meanwhile, Bengal BJP MLA and former TMC heavyweight Suvendu Adhikari has launched a counter-attack on Ms Banerjee and said she is busy politicising the meeting with Prime Minister
Modi while she failed to attend the previous meetings with chief ministers.
In a series of tweets, Mr Adhikari said, “Today, our respected CM Mamata Banerjee has once
again shown her total disinterest in administration. True to her style, she has politicised a meeting Hon’ble PM Narendra Modi held with District Officials, where grassroots level practices to fight Covid-19 were being discussed.”
“To state clearly, PM Narendra Modi has held numerous meetings with Chief Ministers in the
last few months, how many did Mamata Banerjee attend? ZERO,” said Mr Adhikari, soon after
Ms Banerjee said she was humiliated at the PM-DM meet which she attended.