Hours after a district court directed police to arrest Mamta Banerjee and some others by February 27 in connection with a 12 year-old criminal case, the firebrand Trinamool Congress supremo said she will not surrender "under any circumstances".
"I will not surrender, all these are part of Communist Party of India-Marxist's conspiracy," she said at a press conference, asserting there was no question of surrendering "since we have not committed any crime".
Banerjee warned CPI-M against 'daring' to take any such move which might trigger law and order problem and that there should not be any 'hide and seek game' in arresting her if the authorities thought it fit to do so.
"We are not killers. We had launched a political movement. (Referring to the 1994 rally at Barasat during her tenure as the state Youth Congress chief.) It was our right to initiate democratic movement in the interest of the people," she said.
Two persons were killed in police firing during the rally by Banerjee-led Youth Congress at Barasat, the district headquarters of neighbouring north 24 Parganas in 1994.
Taking a dig at veteran Marxist leader Jyoti Basu for saying the police had not been asked to arrest her, Banerjee said it appeared that the CPI-M had been showing signs of pardon.
She also flayed the CPI-M state secretary Anil Biswas' reported statement that the party would not waste time in pursuing the matter of arresting her, saying that she could expect minimum courtesy as a political party leader.
"But CPI-M has no such word as respect in its lexicon," Banerjee said.
Alleging that the CPI-M had tried to kill her in 1990 and made several attempts later too, she said no case was instituted then.
But, the party had revived a 1994 case prior to the state assembly elections. "We will fight it out politically," Banerjee said alleging the CPI-M-led Left Front government had conspired to gag the voice of the opposition only to cling to power.
Criticising the Buddhadev Bhattacharjee-government for "gagging the opposition voice", the TC supremo said the Constitution has given the right to launch a movement and the Left Front had no right to continue in power.
"The LF government is trying to stifle the opposition voice. It is a shame on democracy," she said adding, "The CPI-M is scared." Turning to the Election Commission's decision to send 19 observers in the state including K J Rao, the observer for Bihar poll, Banerjee said, "We welcome it. We hope EC will ensure free and fair election in West Bengal too."
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