Farm Bills' Fight Gives Mamata Banerjee Fresh Ammo Against "Chi Chi" BJP

Condemning the BJP for 'Black Sunday' when it "forcibly" passed the controversial farm bills, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today announced Trinamool Congress will take to the streets from Tuesday on the issue.

She also voiced full support to the MPs protesting against the bills inside and outside the House.

"The way the farmers bills were passed, I say, chi BJP chi (shame BJP shame). The BJP is a shame for the country. Shame, shame BJP for the way you have grabbed farmers rights," Ms Banerjee said at a press meet in Kolkata this afternoon.

"We will ring bells and blow conch shells and tell the people we don't need this BJP government anymore. This BJP government needs to go. This BJP government is a government of shame. This central BJP government is a 'chi chi' government. If the people ask today, Emperor, where are your clothes, how will you reply," she added.

The chief minister declared the Trinamool Mahila Congress would sit on dharna at the Gandhi statue in Kolkata tomorrow and congratulated the MPs protesting in Delhi at the Gandhi statue in the Parliament complex. She later spoke to the protesting MPs on phone.

Ms Banerjee's outrage was sparked not just by the passage of the farm bills but also because two of her Rajya Sabha MPs were suspended for the rest of the term for protesting against it.

Derek O'Brien and Dola Sen are among the eight MPs suspended yesterday for "misbehaving" when the farm bills came up in Rajya Sabha. When the deputy chairman disallowed opposition demand for a division or vote on the bills, Mr O'Brien and other MPs rushed to the well of the House, copies of the bill were torn and tossed into the air and Mr O'Brien allegedly tore the rule book, something the MP has denied.

Not just the farm bills, Ms Banerjee called for protests against the labour bills as well.

"I strongly condemn the tactics used to pass the farmers bills forcibly, the bulldozing of state governments and the snatching of the rights of farmers and workers. On behalf of farmers and workers, I urge students to come forward. People need to unite," she said.

In a break with the past, Mamata Banerjee attacked the BJP at the press meet which she addressed from the Chief Minister's Office at the state secretariat today. Earlier, she has made it a point of not naming political parties and raising political issues from there.