By IANS,
Singur : Criticising a section of the media for “fake reports” on her campaign against land acquisition, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee Thursday urged her supporters to boycott two Bengali newspapers and two TV news channels.
“Don’t read Ananda Bazaar Patrika and Sambad Pratidin newspapers and don’t watch Star Ananda and Chobis Ghanta news channels. They are slaves of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and are trying to mislead people with their fake reports against us and our movement,” Banerjee said at the party’s agitation camp in Singur, 40 km from here.
“We know how the media creates news. They bribed the police, stopped 20 trucks on the highway, took photos and said we have blocked the National Highway 2 for our agitation. The truth is, we are sitting quite some distance away from the highway. But so many people are coming to join our movement that they have to stand on the highway due to lack of space.”
Banerjee said vehicles were using parallel and alternative roads. “But the news channels are not showing that.”
“One of the directors of a newspaper came to me a few days back and offered me a huge sum of money to withdraw my movement. I told him that I have never deceived people and will never do so. Maybe I lack money power, but I have manpower – the support of common people.”
The Trinamool Congress chief said some news channels and newspapers had taken money from the CPI-M led ruling Left Front to report against her.
“These channels and newspapers pretend to be the voice of the people. All they care for are advertisements from the Tata group and bribes in the form of land and money from CPI-M,” she said.
The Trinamool-backed Krishijami Jiban Jibika Raksha Committee, which opposes the takeover of farmland for Tata Motors’ project here, has called for an indefinite protest at the factory site from Sunday.
The protesters are demanding the return of 400 acres of land, which they allege was forcibly taken from “unwilling farmers” to build ancillary industries adjacent to the main small car plant.