By IANS,
Kolkata : Lacing wit with sarcasm, a West Bengal minister Tuesday attacked Mamata Banerjee for her knack of blaming the state’s Left Front government at every opportunity, and offered to hand over the reins of the state to her for three months for solving the state’s problems with her “secret formula”.
State Housing Minister Gautam Deb, who has been in the forefront of the Marxist counter-assault on the aggressive Trinamool supremo, took pot shots at Banerjee’s claim of bringing peace in Jungle Mahal (Maoist-affected forest areas of western districts West Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia) and the hills in the north within three months.
“If she can really bring peace in three months, then we will request her to become the chief minister for three months and bring the much needed peace. I will request the chief minister (Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee) to hand over the reins to her for three months,” he said.
“If on her call, the Maoists drop their guns and take up harmoniums and start singing ‘bhajans’, then she must be given a chance,” he said.
Taking a further dig at the firebrand leader, Deb said: “I wonder what is her secret formula? Not only do the Maoists listen to her, but also the Gorkha Janmukhti Morcha (GJM) leadership, that has extended olive branch only to her.”
“She should share her secret formula with all. The whole country will be benefited,” added Deb.
The GJM has been spearheading the movement for a separate Gorkhaland state to be carved out of parts of Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri districts.
In an over-hour long media conference, Deb used audio visual clips to offer a point by point rebuttal of Banerjee’s allegations.
Reacting to her claim that the Maoists were the product of the CPI-M, Deb said: “The Maoist leaders openly say they want her to be the chief minister. She openly meets them. How can then she claim that they are products of the CPI-M?”
Deb, at his sarcastic best, described the Trinamool Congress as a brain dead party.
Returning Banerjee’s jibe that the CPI-M was in coma, he said: “If we are in coma, then her party has suffered brain death. A comatose patient can wake up, but not a brain dead patient.”
“If we are like a comatose patient, then why is she bad mouthing us? Shouldn’t she respect such a patient? Who on earth bad mouths such a person?” he asked.