Mamata Banerjee having double standards on NIA: BJP

KOLKATA: The BJP today claimed that Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee was maintaining double standards on NIA probe, pleading for it when she was an Opposition leader and opposing it when she became the Chief Minister.

"In the case of blast and fire in Vedic village here in 2009, Banerjee had demanded NIA investigation, but now when in the case of Burdwan blast links from Jammu and Kashmir to Bangladesh are being suggested, she was opposing it," BJP national secretary Siddharth Nath Singh told a press conference here.

"She does not practise what she preaches," Singh claimed while wondering "why Mamata Banerjee is keeping silent" and said, "It was only to avoid difficult questions."

Stating that the Burdwan blast was a very serious issue with international ramifications and terror links, Singh said, "This is not politics, this is a question of national security."

He claimed that on the Burdwan issue, "it is for the first time that the Indian government has been embarrassed by another nation."

Singh, however, refused to elaborate, saying that ongoing investigation into the issue would throw light on the matter in future.

Referring to Banerjee's Facebook post on October 14 on ethics in politics, the BJP leader said, "It sounds nice, but are you practising what you are preaching?"

Banerjee had said "Love for motherland should come first before allegiance to politics or political parties."