Smriti Irani said political histrionics of Mamata Banerjee was brought to screeching halt (File)
BJP leader Smriti Irani made a piercing comment on West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday, saying that the Supreme Court's order that Kolkata police chief must cooperate with the CBI in its probe in Bengal ponzi scams, was "egg on her face".
The Supreme Court mediated between the warring CBI and West Bengal government, ordering Kolkata police chief Rajeev Kumar to appear on February 20 before the investigating agency in Shillong. It also barred the agency from arresting Mr Kumar. After the verdict, both the sides claimed victory.
"Only the people and nobody is the big boss of this country... Only democracy is the big boss of this country," Mamata Banerjee told reporters from the site where she had been protesting since Sunday. She added: "It is not my victory alone. It is a victory of the constitution, a victory of Save India."
After the comment, Ms Irani addressed a press conference. "With egg on her face, to celebrate it as a moral victory is a dichotomy available only to Mamata Banerjee''s realm of politics," she said.
"The political histrionics of Mamata Banerjee was brought to screeching halt by the Supreme Court. The political environment in West Bengal is not suitable. The Supreme Court gave its judgement keeping that in mind and directed Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar to present himself in Shillong," Ms Irani was quoted by PTI as saying.
Mamata Banerjee has called off her sit-in protest, which turned Kolkata into the country's political capital for the last three days. "We are not stopping the fight, we are taking it to Delhi," announced the Bengal chief minister, standing beside her Andhra Pradesh counterpart Chandrababu Naidu at Kolkata's Esplanade, where she has been camping out.
The BJP and the West Bengal Chief Minister have been on collision course for months now. Last year, they clashed over BJP's rathyatra, which was blocked by Ms Banerjee's government. On Sunday, the bone of contention was the CBI approaching Mr Kumar's house. The team was stopped and briefly detained. But the incident enraged Ms Banerjee, who sat on a protest that lasted three days.
With inputs from PTI