Kolkata: Trinamool Congress Chief Mamata Banerjee on Sunday threatened to take legal action against Tata Group chairman Ratan Tata for making "defamatory comments" against her and the farmers' agitation that led to the Nano car car project being shifted from Singur in West Bengal to Gujarat.
"We are considering legal action against him for his comments. He is speaking like a political leader. Let him contest an election from Bengal," Banerjee told reporters in Kolkata.
In an advertisement splashed in several newspapers here, Ratan Tata on Friday warned the people of West Bengal of the "destructive political environment of confrontation" that he said the Trinamool Congress was espousing.
Criticising Banerjee, Tata said, "The confrontative actions by the Trinamool Congress led by Mamata Banerjee and supported by vested interests and certain political parties have caused serious disruption to the progress of the Nano plant."
Attacking Tata, Banerjee said that he was now determining the political line of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) that leads West Bengal's ruling Left Front. "On the contrary, the people of the state determine the direction of our politics.
"We are stunned by his comments. He owes a lot to the CPI-M. He got Rs 200 crore from the CPI-M to set up the plant here. On the other hand, he had to pay Rs 400 crore to the Gujarat government for the proposed factory at Sanand. So, he is giving certificates to the Bengal government," she said.
"It's a new form of joint venture – private brokership with Government money," she said sarcastically.
A day before her programme to lay siege on the city police headquarters at Lalbazar, Banerjee alleged the CPI-M had hatched a conspiracy to create disturbances by deputing its cadre to infiltrate among the ranks of her supporters Monday.
"These people will hold aloft Trinamool flags and then throw stones at the police to provoke them," Mamata said.
Banerjee also took strong exception to the CPI-M youth wing Democratic Youth Federation of India's threat on Saturday that its activists would be on the road to assist the police if the Trinamool attempted to breach the peace.
"Every political party has the democratic right to undertake a political programme. How dare the DYFI say it will be on the roads to take us on? Who are they? Does that mean there is no administration in the state?" she wondered.
The siege has been called in protest against the arrest of a party worker for his alleged involvement in violence in the southern part of the city October 5.
"It seems there is an undeclared emergency in the state," Banerjee said, warning that the government would be solely responsible if anything untoward happened on Monday.
"On our part we will be restrained and maintain peace. I urge the administration to do the same," she added.
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