TMC's 'violence model' won't work: Trivedi

February 17, 2021 18:24

Former Union minister Dinesh Trivedi, who recently quit the Trinamool Congress, has said the "corruption and violence model" of West Bengal's ruling party will no longer work for it and take the state back to "dark days".

He also termed the "insider-outsider" debate started by TMC supremo and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee as "antithetical" to Bengal's liberal ethos.

The former railway minister praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi, hailing his popularity and insisting people have faith in his leadership, but kept under wraps his political plans.

Trivedi had resigned from the Rajya Sabha and the TMC last Friday, saying he felt "suffocated" because of the violence going on in West Bengal and his inability to do anything about it.

He also insisted that the rule of law needed to be established in the state for bringing about the "real change".

"In Bengal, we talk about icons and their ideals but what we see is contrary. The (TMC) model of violence and corruption is not what Bengal stands for. This model will take Bengal to dark days. The state has so much potential and we can't just let it go waste," Trivedi said in an exclusive interview with PTI.

He said as a public representative he could not have turned a blind eye to what was happening in the state.

Trivedi maintained he felt ashamed when people asked him about the culture of violence in the state, something that "pricked" his conscience and made him take a firm stand.

"I should rather work for the people of the state in my way if my party is not allowing me to do so. It is high time that we ended the TMC's model and culture of corruption and violence," he said.

Trivedi also accused the TMC of being in "denial mode" over the happenings in the state and playing the "victim card".

"If the thought process is that if you don't abuse the prime minister and home minister regularly, you are not a loyal soldier of the party, then no one can help it. Criticising doesn't mean abusing. We are Bengali Bhadra lok

(gentlemen)."

He said the chair commands respect and those occupying it should not be denigrated just because they are from a rival party.

The veteran leader said he raised these issues several times on TMC forums but that did not yield any result as "somebody else" other than Mamata Banerjee took "control of the party" after it came to power in 2011. He, however, declined to name who it was.

"Time and again I raised the issues with the party. After Narada scam, when I raised the issue in a party forum it was set aside. I became the bad guy and was asked not to go for campaigning in the assembly polls. I never spoke out in public due to party discipline," he said, responding to a question about why it took him so long to speak out.

Political circles have been agog with speculation that he may join the BJP but Trivedi chose to keep his cards close to the chest while praising the saffron party.

"The BJP is the No. 1 party in the world. I thank Kailash Vijayvargiya Ji (BJP's Bengal minder) and Dilip Ghosh Ji (state party chief) from the core of my heart for welcoming me to the party. Only time will answer what's in store. But I will keep fighting for the betterment of the people of Bengal," he said.

Trivedi said people of the country as also West Bengal have faith in Narendra Modi's leadership, which was reflected in the way the BJP won 18 of the state's 42 Lok Sabha seats in 2019.

"It was due to people's faith in Modi that the BJP pulled off such a spectacular peformance. I too lost the Lok Sabha election because of the Modi wave. How can we deny that?" Trivedi, who had to bite the dust from Barrackpore, said.

The former union minister deprecated the insider-outsider debate triggered by Mamata Banerjee, saying it was against the state's cultural tradition of liberalism.

« Back to LIVE

TOP STORIES

Yoga officially makes debut in Pakistan

Yoga is normally linked with India and there are not many formal institutions in Pakistan to teach yoga. Though privately people like the physical part of yoga exercises.

'Shehzada' vs 'shahidzada': Modi, Cong trade barbs over Rahul

The Congress leader also said that the BJP wants to change the Constitution, and reduce and weaken the rights given to the people through the statute book.

Ex-Delhi Cong chief Arvinder Singh Lovely joins BJP

Lovely hailed the BJP leadership, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, for giving him and his colleagues the opportunity to join the party when they felt lost.

Maulvi arrested in Guj over plot to kill Hindu leader

Surat police commissioner Anupam Singh Gehlot identified the arrested accused as Maulvi Sohel Abubakr Timol (27), who worked at a thread factory as a manager and offered private tuition on Islam to Muslim children.

Caught smuggling 25kg gold, Afghan diplomat resigns

Wardak had taken charge as the acting ambassador of Afghanistan to New Delhi since late last year after working as the Afghan Consul General in Mumbai for over two years.