[1]The Trinamul Congress today accused the media of unnecessarily hyping the incident of West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee publicly abusing her security guards at the book fair here.
“Some motivated sections of the media have made a mountain of a molehill. This issue should not be the topic of discussion...Whatever happened is a small thing,” Trinamul Congress MP Saugata Roy said.
“Lakhs of such things are said by a CM. I recall that when Jyoti Basu was the chief minister he had called the Opposition scoundrels,” he said on the sidelines of an Indian Chamber of Commerce event here.
On February 5, Banerjee had lost her cool and screamed in public at her security guards for delay in arrival of her car at the gate of the Kolkata book fair site.
Mamata, in full public view had said guards “should be whipped” for making her wait for her car. Roy, who is part of the chief minister’s advisory council for industry and IT, said by belittling the chief minister, the media was belittling the state.
Rights body, Association of Protection of Democratic Rights has filed a complaint against Banerjee in the state Human Rights Commission, describing her remarks as a gross violation of human rights.
Asked to comment on former West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s questioning the honesty of his successor, Roy also blamed it on the media.
“Some media houses are trying to promote him (Bhattacharjee) now. Mamata Banerjee is known for her honesty not only in Bengal but whole India. They can’t question her honesty,” he said.
The Lok Sabha MP said, “Let Buddhadeb win at least one election and then ask questions.” Bhattacharjee had told a Bengali TV news channel in an interview on Tuesday that “I don’t agree with the perception that she (Banerjee) is honest.”
The Trinamul Congress had yesterday slapped a legal notice and given Bhattacharjee a 48-hour deadline to apologise or face legal action.
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[1] http://archive.asianage.com/sanjay-4jpg-920