Mamata on the warpath to win back lost trust
Her party stuck deep in the Saradha muddle — a crisis unprecedented in the Trinamool Congress' history — Mamata Banerjee took to the streets on Thursday in a desperate bid to reclaim lost faith and stave off a CBI probe into the Ponzi crisis. Mamata chose Shyambazar crossing to launch her counterattack — a location of symbolic importance for her because this is where she had carved out her political course more than a decade ago. With nephew Abhishek Banerjee facing the heat from CPM, Mamata was in a combative mood with a clear strategy to drag CPM and Congress into the muddle. But she made a rare admission: "One or two in a family may be at fault. Don't judge the entire family by the individual. What do you do when you find a rotten chilli in a 100 kg pack? Do you throw away the entire lot?". Belittling the Opposition as "men whom their wives don't rely upon," she said: "There are some who have no other job but to make themselves available at talk shows. Oder mogoje morubhumi, pete krimi (they have lost their brains with stomach full of worms). They are busy spreading spicy canards against us. They are men full of deceit." Her government has gone on an overdrive, rounding up suspects and sealing offices of chit fund firms across the city to give an impression that the administration is serious about the probe. This will come handy in Mamata's defence against a CBI probe. With two PILs demanding a CBI inquiry due to be heard in high court, Mamata knows that her words won't be enough.
