Mamata calls note ban biggest scam

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday said her party, the Trinamool Congress, will launch a major protest campaign across the eastern states against demonetisation on November 8.

Mamata termed the Centre’s move the biggest scam to ever hit India.
“These days, the word 'mitron' (friends) or 'bhaiyon' (brothers) sends a shiver down the spines of the country’s people. This is what we have got a year after the demonetisation drive was imposed on us. Other than the BJP, who has gained from notebandi? No one," Mamata said while addressing an extended meeting of her party’s core committee.

"People have lost their jobs. We will not tolerate this. Trinamool Congress will launch and major campaign against demonetisation on November 8 and we will treat that day as a black day. All Opposition parties have decided on the date and we are with them,” she said.

“You have seen how they (BJP) are bribing people in Gujarat. This is what they are doing all over. They are unleashing central agencies against those who are their opponents...They are forgetting that the necklace which they are now wearing proudly, will turn into a poison band for them once they lose the elections,” Mamata added.

Without naming Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Mamata said a party at the Centre is divisive in nature and keeps harping about the chest size of one man.

“They keep telling us about the size of a person’s 'chaati' (chest). What we need actually is a 'chata' (umbrella) and not a 'chaati' over the people’s heads. The people need to be protected from the evil designs of this government,” she said.

Coming down heavily on the Centre’s decision of making Aadhaar mandatory for mobile phone connections, the chief minister said, “They want to snoop into everybody’s personal lives and analyse them in the BJP headquarters. But, there is something called Right to Privacy and we will not bow down to their pressure tactics. I personally will not link my Aadhaar number with my mobile phone connection and for that, if they disconnect my connection, so be it.”

Training her guns against the BJP for their criticism of the state government’s failure to control the spread of dengue, Mamata gave out casualty figures from vector-borne diseases in states like Gujarat, Rajasthan, Assam and Madhya Pradesh, and stressed that the rate was the lowest in West Bengal and spread of the disease was controlled in the state.