December 2, 2016
Sudip Bandyopadhyay speaks in Lok Sabha on the deployment of Army in parts of Bengal without the knowledge of State Government | FULL TRANSCRIPT
Madam, yesterday, in the afternoon, suddenly, it was observed in Bengal that the Army has taken over most of the toll plazas in the city of Kolkata and other districts in the Statel. When the Hon’ble Chief Minister of Bengal enquired, she found out that no permission has been sought from the Secretariat of Bengal Government.
Madam, Nabanna, the State Secretariat is located next to a toll plaza. Just adjacent to the toll plaza, army was deployed apart from 19 places of the State. When clarifications were sought, they said that it is a routine programme.
If such operation is to be be made, there must be ministry to ministry communication. The Defense Ministry will tell the State Government and they will come to the rescue. It is a fantastic situation going on. The Army authorities have declared today in the morning that they are making their routine exercise in Manipur, Assam, Arunachal, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Tripura, Mizoram and Bengal, all the north-eastern states. Don’t they have the idea that Bengal does not fall in the jurisdiction of the north-eastern states.
Madam, what I want to say is that the people of this country have the highest faith in the Army. They fight for the country, they give their lives for the country, why are they being used for this purpose? They are collecting tolls at some places; the video is with us. I handed over a pendrive yesterday to Hon’ble President of India, I reported to him also, Mamata Banerjee has stayed put in her chamber in Nabanna and is still there. We would ask Hon’ble Minister to withdraw the Army immediately and if any such exercise is to be undertaken, then government to government negotiation must take place; only then the decision must be taken. Otherwise it will be difficult for the ministry to convince us, and we will take it that the motivation behind is that the federal structure is going to be challenged.
