Mamata Banerjee's comments today on "one nation, all humiliation", accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of insulting Chief Ministers at a meeting on Covid, provoked an instant backlash from the BJP, including her former aide Suvendu Adhikari.
The Bengal Chief Minister had "once again shown her total disinterest in administration" and politicized the PM's meeting with District Magistrates, said Suvendu Adhikari, using the word "shameful" for his former mentor.
"To state clearly, PM Modi has held numerous meetings with Chief Ministers in the last few months, how many did Mamata Banerjee attend? ZERO. Now, she hijacks a PM-DM meet to say she was denied a chance to speak. Shameful!" - the BJP MLA said in tweets.
"Cooperative federalism is the firm commitment of PM Modi unlike Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who only believes in confrontational federalism." He added scathingly that while Bengal's Covid numbers "are miserable", the Chief Minister wanted to play politics.
Mamata Banerjee had earlier alleged that the Prime Minister did not allow any Chief Minister to speak at his meeting today with district officials.
"This was not a one-way communication... it was one way humiliation... One nation, all humiliation," said the Chief Minister, who has been a part of several meetings on Covid and has skipped some too.
"Is the Prime Minister so insecure that he didn't want to listen to the Chief Ministers? Why is he so scared? If he didn't want to hear the Chief Ministers why call us? He let some District Magistrates speak and insulted the Chief Ministers," she said.
The Prime Minister, she said, never asked about the availability of beds, vaccine or oxygen or about the status of the black fungus infection in Covid patients. "We are embarrassed, ashamed," she said.
Describing PM Modi as "arrogant" and "casual", she 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."
Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad hit out at the Chief Minister saying she tried to derail the meeting. "Mamata Banerjee behaved in an unbecoming manner. She did not attend so many meetings. Today she tried to disturb the meeting. If PM wants to know what good work district officials are doing in some parts of the country, then what is wrong with it," Mr Prasad said.
"What happened is unfortunate, shameful and condemnable," said the senior BJP leader.
The ruling party said since 2015, Ms Banerjee had missed many important meetings with the PM, like those on the restructuring of the planning commission, the land bill and "One Nation, One Election".
Ms Banerjee's collision with the BJP has been a near-daily affair since she came to power in Bengal for a third straight term in an election preceded by one of the most acrimonious campaigns in recent times.
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