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West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress Chairperson, Mamata Banerjee, hit the streets today, to protest "against conspiracies of the Centre to defame the party".
Unofficial estimates put the turnout at the anti-CBI roadshow at approximately 30,000 vis-a-vis TMC's expectation of 50,000. From her cultural clan, actor Dev (also an MP), singer, Indranil Sen (who contested from Berhampore constituency in the Lok Sabha elections), and painter, Jogen Chowdhury were present.
Banerjee continued her tirade against the Centre. "We want every penny of black money back. We want an account of all the expenses of the Prime Minister's trips. Why did SBI give away Rs 5,000 crore to a private company? Isn't this hawala?" Banerjee said.
Though Banerjee didn't takes names, she was probably referring to SBI's $1 billion loan to Adani. The bank had, however, recently clarified recently that the board would take a final call.
She also said that the BJP won because there was no alternative. "I dare the Centre to arrest me," he said.
Over the past few months, the CBI had stepped up its investigations into Saradha scam, which has turned out to be a huge embarrassment for the party and become a bone of contention. Last week, MP, Srinjoy Bose, was arrested by the CBI, the second person with direct party links. Transport Minister, Madan Mitra, has been summoned. More people with TMC links were likely to be questioned by the investigating agencies.
This was also the first time that Opposition parties were directly questioning Banerjee's proximity to Sudipta Sen.
Banerjee , however, called on intellectuals, sportspersons, actors, writers and thinkers to lead apolitical protests against the Centre's conspiracies. "Bengal protested during the Vietnam War. Bengal hit the streets in solidarity when East Bengal was fighting Muktijuddha," she said.
Bengal's intellectuals played a key role in the recent past. It was the intellectuals who gave the first call for Paribartan of state leadership in 2009, in a bid to protest against Left's excesses in Nandigram and Singur.
The Paribartan Chai campaign spearheaded by painter, Shuvaprasanna, had many iconic cultural personalities of Bengal: writer and social activist, Mahasweta Devi, painter, Jogen Chowdhury, theatre personalities, Bratya Basu, Bibhas Chakraborty and Shaonli Mitra, film director, Aparna Sen, poet, Joy Goswami, educationist, Sunanda Sanyal.
Most of the faces of this campaign, however, were missing from today's rally.
