Arun Jaitley hits out at Mamta Banerjee's 'dharna tactics', 'Kleptocrat's Club'

Union Minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday slammed opposition parties backing West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's dharna against the Centre and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), and referred them the 'Kleptocrat's Club' that aspires to capture the reigns of India.

"Mamata Banerjee's disproportionate over-reaction to the CBI wanting to interrogate the Kolkata Police Chief has flagged several issues for a public discourse. The most important being that a Kleptocrat's Club now aspires to capture the reigns of India," Jaitley wrote in a Facebook post.

Since Sunday evening, WB Chief Minister is sitting on dharna in Kolkata against the CBI's action to question the city Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar in the chit fund scams, including Saradha and Rose Valley. Kumar was the head of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) Mamta Banerjee's government had set up to investigate the Saradha scam back in 2013.

Also Read: Mamata Banerjee vs CBI: What is the Saradha scam?

In a Facebook post titled 'The Kleptocrat's Club', Jaitley said that those who have lent support to the West Bengal Dharna are those who are battling serious allegations of economic improprieties, criminal misconduct and even corruption.

"Can 'New India' be ever run by this Kleptocrat's Club,"  Jaitley said.

The Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal government and the central government are at loggerheads over the CBI investigation into the Saradha chit fund scam. The standoff between the state and the central government started after the CBI reached Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar's residence on Sunday to question him on the scam.

Raising question over Mamata Banerjee's dharna tactics, the senior BJP leader asked what is the strategy behind Chief Minister's disgraceful and disproportionate reaction? What is her strategy in inviting all other leaders belonging to every opposition to join her on the Dharna?

It would be a gross error to assume that she did this because of a routine investigation involving a police officer, he said adding that she did it to defocus from other opposition aspirants for the highest office and to project herself as the nucleus of India's opposition.

Also Read: Rose Valley scam: All you need to know about the chit fund case

Her speeches attack Prime Minister Modi but her strategy is aimed to defocus some of her other colleagues in the Opposition and hogging the centre stage, the Minister said.

Taking on the Congress President Rahul Gandhi for supporting Mamata Banerjee, Jaitley said that the AICC President somersaulted his position from Saradha being a scam to "shoulder-to-shoulder" support to the scamster.

"This somersaulter belongs to the first family of the Congress Party where most members of the family are on bail. It has been argued in the past that the Opposition is going in for a non-ideological short-lived coalition. India cannot afford instability," he said.

Jaitley said that it has also been argued that the choice in the next Election will be either Modi vs Chaos or Modi vs Anarchy. Mamata Banerjee's latest acrobatics are the best evidence of the kind of governance India's opposition can provide, he added.

Edited by Chitranjan Kumar