Kolkata: The CPI(M) on Friday said West
Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's opposition to the
National Counter Terrorism Centre was aimed at making herself
relevant nationally and demarcate her party Trinamool
Congress' position vis-a-vis the UPA of which it is a
part.
"This kind of opposition you will find. There are two
reasons for this: one is to make the Trinamool Congress
relevant in the national sphere and the second is to demarcate
its position vis-a-vis the UPA," CPI(M) central committee
member Md Selim told a press conference here.
He said although the Trinamool Congress was part of
the UPA at the Centre and was leading a coalition government
with the Congress in West Bengal, it was planning at the same
time to distance itself from the Congress.
"This is like eating the cake and having it too,"
Salim said.
Banerjee had asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to
'review and withdraw' the order on organisation, function,
power and duties of the newly constituted NCTC under the
Ministry of Home Affairs.
In a letter to the Prime Minister on February 14,
Banerjee said it was difficult for the state government to
accept such 'arbitrary exercise of power' by the central
government/central agency, which had a bearing on the rights
and privilege of the states as enshrined in the Constitution.
Claiming that the Trinamool Congress and Congress
coalition was in 'disarray,' he said, "in some cases, (Mamata
Banerjee) is looking towards the right at the BJP and
sometimes she is looking at the Centre and finding allies in
other regional parties and sometimes she is looking at
erstwhile allies Congress."
PTI
First Published: Friday, February 17, 2012, 21:14