Centre changing functioning of institutions, alleges Mamata

Kolkata, Nov 16 (IANS) Taking a dig at the BJP for changing names of the cities, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday accused the Narendra Modi-led NDA government of trying to change the functioning of autonomous institutions like the RBI and the CBI.

She also accused the Centre of making attempts to change the Constitution and the federal structure of the country.

"They are history changer, policy changer, Planning Commission changer, note changer, institution changer, but not game changer. The country is in danger. They are making attempts to change the Constitution and the federal structure of the country," she said at the extended core committee meeting of the Trinamool Congress.

Incidentally, the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh changed the names of two historical cities -- Allahabad to Prayagraj and Faizabad to Ayodhya. The Gujarat government was also planning to change the name of Ahmedabad to Karnavati.

Banerjee asserted that her party would play a bigger role to save the country from such destruction.

"They (the NDA government) are destroying institutions. They are trying to change the way the RBI and the CBI function. The party has made building statues as its poll agenda and will itself become a statue after the next year's Lok Sabha elections," Banerjee said.

Trinamool supremo ridiculed the scheduled "Rath Yatra" programme of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Bengal as "Ravan Yatra" and instructed her party for cleansing of areas through which the saffron party's chariots would pass.

"Simply ignore such programmes as these are simply political gimmicks. We will conduct purification and 'ekta yatra' to unite all communities with the message of peace and harmony," she said while giving a slogan -- "BJP Hatao, Desh Bachao" (remove BJP, save country).

BJP President Amit Shah is set to kick off three rath yatras in Bengal on December 5, 7 and 9, which will cover all the 42 Lok Sabha constituencies in the state before converging in Kolkata in the second week of January.

Banerjee termed the proposed anti-BJP mega rally at Brigade Parade Ground here on January 19 next year as the "turning point" and chalked out the roadmap for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

She instructed her party members to strengthen "BJP Hatao" drive and announced that Trinamool will contest in a number of Lok Sabha seats in Jharkhand, Odisha and Assam and fight from the north-eastern states.

"All national political parties except one or two have already confirmed their attendance at the Brigade rally. So, you should remember that the mega rally will be a turning point. Delegates and supporters will be coming from states like Chattisgarh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Bihar, Assam, Tripura, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Odisha. It is our duty to ensure that they face no difficulty in our state," Banerjee said.