Mamata Banerjee hits back at Manohar Parrikar, asks him not to pass 'near defamatory' remarks

KOLKATA: In a scathing response to defence minister Manohar Parrikar's letter on the army controversy, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee wrote that she had taken a "strong exception" to the "wild assertion" made by the defence minister. Parrikar wrote a letter to Banerjee saying her allegation against army had demoralised the force and the political parties should not drag armed forces into the political mud slinging.

"I take strong exception to your wild assertion that my articulation of the right of the state government vis-a-vis army deployment without the clearance has impacted the morale of the armed forces. You have also in the last paragraph chosen to convey the laughable idea that you are the sole spokesperson on behalf of the people at large. I do not think that if behoves a minister to pass near defamatory remarks on a chief minister of any state and I trust that you will rectify this attitude, "wrote Banerjee .

Parrikar criticised Mamata's Trinamool Congress saying that political parties have the "luxury of making wild and unsubstantiated allegation against each other", though the armed forces should not be dragged into it.

Attacking the ruling BJP, she replied in the letter that the defence minister's "observation about the political parties and politicians to have the luxury of making wild and unsubstantiated allegations may be apt for your party, but we don't belong to that group."

She further stressed that the ministry should take written clearance from the state government before carrying out any such exercise in future.