Arun Jaitley takes on Mamata Banerjee, Trinamool Congress hits back

NEW DELHI: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today deprecated Mamata Banerjee's criticism of interrogation and arrest of some of her party leaders in the Saradha chit fund scam, evoking a sharp response from Trinamool Congress which said a "devious" plan was being plotted against it by the BJP at the behest of the RSS.

In his latest Facebook post, Jaitley said in the context of the interrogation and arrest of some TMC leaders in the Saradha scam the West Bengal Chief Minister's reaction on it had left him "deeply disappointed".

"Various political forces joined the TMC to get the Left out. Some individuals connected with the TMC have been involved in making easy money from the ponzi schemes. The schemes have looted small investors.

"As a new political party, it was incumbent on any responsible leader to purge the party of such leaders. It is regrettable that Mamata didi instead of doing that has chosen to identify herself with the cause of these leaders," he said.

Hitting back, TMC leader Derek O'Brien."Jaitleyji do what you want but TMC doesn't need lessons on nationalistic ideas."

Taking up the Burdwan blast case, Jaitley said NIA had arrested several people who were behind it.

"...The West Bengal Police or the other intelligence agencies have no substantive material to establish that the blast was stage-managed. If there is no such material, why has Didi chosen to allege that the blast was stage managed?

"Such allegations clearly help the actual culprits. This is neither responsible nor nationalistic," said Jaitley.

O'Brien said that the saffron party did not have the right to question the CM as it was thriving on black money.

"This is all part of a larger devious BJP master game plan. PM used this narrative throughout his rallies. If nation knows how much black money is spent by BJP, they will become a blacklisted party," he said.