I-PAC raid row: Trinamool to continue parallel legal, on-street battle
Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee on Friday made it clear that her party will continue a parallel legal and on-the-street political battle over the controversy surrounding the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) simultaneous raid and search operations on January 8 at the office of the Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC) in Salt Lake, on the northern outskirts of Kolkata, and at the residence of I-PAC co-founder Pratik Jain at Loudon Street in central Kolkata.
She led a protest rally in the matter in south Kolkata on Friday afternoon, starting from Jadavpur and ending at Hazra crossing, where she outlined her party’s strategy on the issue.
“Our movement is against the harassment of the people masterminded from New Delhi. Our movement is against the deliberate attempt to strike off the names of genuine voters in the state from the voters’ list in the name of the Special Intensive Revision. Our movement is against the deliberate denial of the rights of the people of West Bengal. So being on the streets is the only way out to spearhead the movement on this issue, and this will continue,” the Chief Minister said.
Speaking on the occasion, Banerjee accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of capturing power through the back door in many states, which, according to her, was often done forcefully.
“They are trying to do the same thing in West Bengal. The people of West Bengal will not tolerate that any more. I, too, have information about the involvement of BJP leaders with unaccounted money. I am yet to reveal that. But if necessary, I will reveal it now. I tolerate up to a certain level; if I open my mouth now, it will become an international issue,” the Chief Minister said.
She also accused the BJP of spreading false narratives about illegal Rohingya infiltrators in West Bengal’s voters’ list.
“Before the SIR, they claimed that lakhs of illegal Rohingya infiltrators were in the voters’ list. But to date, not a single one has been identified. Now the BJP is trying to delete the names of genuine voters using the Election Commission of India,” the Chief Minister said.