West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday lashed out at the centre after Trinamool Congress (TMC) MPs Mahua Moitra, Derek O’Brien, among others, were detained outside union home minister Amit Shah’s office while protesting against the ED raids on the I-PAC chief Pratik Jain’s Kolkata home.
Banerjee said that the treatment meted out to the MPs was “arrogance in uniform”.
“I strongly condemn the shameful and unacceptable treatment meted out to our Members of Parliament. Dragging elected representatives on the streets for exercising their democratic right to protest outside the Home Minister’s office is not law enforcement – it is arrogance in uniform. This is a democracy, not the BJP’s private property,” the West Bengal CM wrote on X.
Mamata Banerjee called out “double standards” of the BJP, saying that when the party leads protests, it expects “red carpet treatment”, while opposition MPs are dragged and detained for the same.
“Democracy does not function on the convenience or comfort of those in power. When BJP leaders protest, they expect red carpets and special privileges. When opposition MPs raise their voices, they are dragged, detained, and humiliated. This double standard exposes the BJP’s idea of democracy – obedience, not dissent,” she further wrote.
The TMC supremo, who is leading a protest march against the ED raids on I-PAC in Kolkata today, said that citizens are by “right” and not by the “mercy pf the chair”.
“Let it be clear: respect is mutual. You respect us, we respect you. You drag us on the road, and we will drag you back to the constitutional idea of tolerance, dissent, and democratic morality. This is our India. We are citizens by right, not at the mercy of a chair, a badge, or a position of power. No government, no party, and no Home Minister gets to decide who deserves dignity in a democracy,” she wrote in the post.
TMC MPs detained
Several Trinamool Congress MPs were detained on Friday while staging a protest outside the office of Union home minister Amit Shah in New Delhi, against the alleged misuse of probe agencies by the Centre. TMC leaders were forcefully evicted from the spot by Delhi Police, with MPs being dragged and physically carried away by police personnel.
The protest took place a day after the ED conducted raids at the office of the political consultancy I-PAC and the residence of its chief.
A police officer told news agency PTI that TMC MPs Derek O’Brien and Mahua Moitra, along with other party leaders, were detained and taken to Parliament Street Police Station. According to the police, they were detained as protests are not permitted outside the Home Ministry’s office due to prohibitory orders and security concerns.
Party MPs O’Brien, Satabdi Roy, Mahua Moitra, Bapi Haldar, Saket Gokhale, Pratima Mondal, Kirti Azad and Sharmila Sarkar were among those who took part in the protest.
The eight MPs of the TMC attempted to enter Kartavya Bhavan, which houses the Home Ministry, holding placards and raising slogans to allege the misuse of the ED.
The MPs were stopped from entering the building, after which they staged a protest at the gate. Later, they were forcefully evicted from the protest spot by the Delhi Police.
