Whole country watching TMC's 'corruption' in WB: Smriti Irani

KOLKATA: Slamming the midnight police crackdown on protesting teaching job aspirants near Kolkata, Union Minister Smriti Irani on Friday said the country was watching the ''misgovernance and corruption'' of the TMC government in West Bengal.

Just after midnight, a strong police contingent had removed the protesters, who claimed to have qualified for the 2014 TET exams but were still omitted from the merit list, following 84 hours of sit-in near the head office of the West Bengal Board of Primary Education in Salt Lake.

''I have only one question, the state government led by Mamata Banerjee is taking action against those who were protesting against the teacher recruitment scam. But, why was no action taken when Partha Chatterjee perpetrated this scam? When officials of this department indulged in wrongdoings, why was no action taken against them?'' Irani, the Women and Child Development Minister, said.

''The entire country is watching the misgovernance, corruption and torture of the TMC government in West Bengal,'' she added.

Irani also hit out at Banerjee over her statement that it was not her but the CPI(M) which drove away Tata Motors from Singur.

''I am astonished that she is lying that she didn't drive out the Tatas. Even a class 8 kid of West Bengal knows the kind of politics Mamata Banerjee pursued to shut down the factory at Singur,'' she said.

The BJP leader, who was in Howrah to attend an organisational meeting of the party, said the TMC wouldn't have a free run in next year's panchayat election.

''All of us know what happened in the 2018 panchayat polls. BJP workers won't allow the TMC to unleash its terror, and have a free run during the polls,'' she said.

Countering the criticism by the opposition over the police action, Trinamool Congress state spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said the police were not interfering in the sit-ins as the state government did not believe in crushing democratic protests.

''However, so far as the Karunamoyee incident is concerned, the protestors violated prohibitory orders and sat on a road before the board office. Police had to lift them as the movement was disrupting normal life,'' he said.