By PTI
NEW DELHI: The “democracy-is-dead” refrain is unlikely to be effective in cornering the Narendra Modi dispensation, Trinamool Congress sources said on Thursday and added the party is drawing a list of 12 promises that the BJP made but failed to fulfil for its crusade against the government.
Among the dozen promises that the Mamata Banerjee-led party plans to take up to corner the BJP government are the doubling of farmers’ income by 2022 and houses for all.
“We have kept it simple. We want to remind the Modi government of the promises it made to the people and also show them how they have failed,” TMC MP Derek O’Brien said.
TMC sources said it would be impossible to put the government on the backfoot through the “democracy is dead” platform and instead, the focus should be on questioning it on the promises it made to the general public but failed to implement on ground.
Though the TMC sources did not mention the Congress, the target was apparent.
ALSO READ | SSC scam: HC extends former Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee’s judicial remand by 14 days
Earlier this month, senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had alleged India is witnessing the “death of democracy” and anybody who raises people’s issues and stands against the onset of dictatorship is “viciously attacked” and put in jail.
The Trinamool Congress said the government promised to rid the country of black money but in reality, it claimed, 99.3 per cent of such money stashed abroad came back to the country with a maximum of it returning to Gujarat.
It also alleged the government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi has sold Rs 2.1 lakh crore worth of PSUs and failed to deposit the promised Rs 15 lakh in bank accounts of the poor.
It has instead squandered away Rs 6.2 trillion in bad loans and Rs 1.22 lakh crore in bank frauds.
The party also plans to raise the issue of the bullet train project, raising questions on land acquisition, and asked how the Railways accumulated a debt of Rs 7 lakh crore.
The failure of the government under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana also will be highlighted by the party, the sources said.
The TMC wants to gain some momentum before the next session of Parliament, which is expected in November, and will go all out against the government, they said.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday directed all her ministers to stop using pilot cars with red beacon anywhere in the state, except highways, and advised them to be very careful while signing any official document, a senior official here said.
The fresh directives from Banerjee are being seen as an attempt to rebuild the image of her government which received back-to-back jolts following the arrests of senior leaders Partha Chatterjee and Anubrata Mondal.
Addressing the first meeting of the state cabinet, following the recent reshuffle, Banerjee also stated that her department would fix separate tasks for the ministers of state, who till date had “very little responsibilities” to carry out.
ALSO READ | TET row: HC recalls order asking Trinamool leader’s daughter, five others to appear before it
“The chief minister at Thursday’s meeting asked her ministers to stop using pilot cars. Ministers can be escorted by pilot cars with red beacon at times when they are travelling on highways, but not anywhere else in the state,” the bureaucrat told PTI after the meeting.
“She also advised cabinet ministers to go through any documents thoroughly before signing them,” he said.
At Thursday’s meeting, Banerjee was learnt to have pulled up state forest minister Jyotipriya Mallick, pointing out that she had been receiving several complaints against him.
She directed Mallick to maintain a “clean image”.
Partha Chatterjee, who held the industry portfolio, was relieved of his ministerial responsibilities and suspended from the TMC following his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) last month in connection with the probe into a school recruitment scam.
Notably, Thursday’s was the first cabinet meeting after Chatterjee’s removal from the ministry.
NEW DELHI: The “democracy-is-dead” refrain is unlikely to be effective in cornering the Narendra Modi dispensation, Trinamool Congress sources said on Thursday and added the party is drawing a list of 12 promises that the BJP made but failed to fulfil for its crusade against the government.
Among the dozen promises that the Mamata Banerjee-led party plans to take up to corner the BJP government are the doubling of farmers’ income by 2022 and houses for all.
“We have kept it simple. We want to remind the Modi government of the promises it made to the people and also show them how they have failed,” TMC MP Derek O’Brien said.
TMC sources said it would be impossible to put the government on the backfoot through the “democracy is dead” platform and instead, the focus should be on questioning it on the promises it made to the general public but failed to implement on ground.
Though the TMC sources did not mention the Congress, the target was apparent.
ALSO READ | SSC scam: HC extends former Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee’s judicial remand by 14 days
Earlier this month, senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had alleged India is witnessing the “death of democracy” and anybody who raises people’s issues and stands against the onset of dictatorship is “viciously attacked” and put in jail.
The Trinamool Congress said the government promised to rid the country of black money but in reality, it claimed, 99.3 per cent of such money stashed abroad came back to the country with a maximum of it returning to Gujarat.
It also alleged the government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi has sold Rs 2.1 lakh crore worth of PSUs and failed to deposit the promised Rs 15 lakh in bank accounts of the poor.
It has instead squandered away Rs 6.2 trillion in bad loans and Rs 1.22 lakh crore in bank frauds.
The party also plans to raise the issue of the bullet train project, raising questions on land acquisition, and asked how the Railways accumulated a debt of Rs 7 lakh crore.
The failure of the government under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana also will be highlighted by the party, the sources said.
The TMC wants to gain some momentum before the next session of Parliament, which is expected in November, and will go all out against the government, they said.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday directed all her ministers to stop using pilot cars with red beacon anywhere in the state, except highways, and advised them to be very careful while signing any official document, a senior official here said.
The fresh directives from Banerjee are being seen as an attempt to rebuild the image of her government which received back-to-back jolts following the arrests of senior leaders Partha Chatterjee and Anubrata Mondal.
Addressing the first meeting of the state cabinet, following the recent reshuffle, Banerjee also stated that her department would fix separate tasks for the ministers of state, who till date had “very little responsibilities” to carry out.
ALSO READ | TET row: HC recalls order asking Trinamool leader’s daughter, five others to appear before it
“The chief minister at Thursday’s meeting asked her ministers to stop using pilot cars. Ministers can be escorted by pilot cars with red beacon at times when they are travelling on highways, but not anywhere else in the state,” the bureaucrat told PTI after the meeting.
“She also advised cabinet ministers to go through any documents thoroughly before signing them,” he said.
At Thursday’s meeting, Banerjee was learnt to have pulled up state forest minister Jyotipriya Mallick, pointing out that she had been receiving several complaints against him.
She directed Mallick to maintain a “clean image”.
Partha Chatterjee, who held the industry portfolio, was relieved of his ministerial responsibilities and suspended from the TMC following his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) last month in connection with the probe into a school recruitment scam.
Notably, Thursday’s was the first cabinet meeting after Chatterjee’s removal from the ministry.