A day after acknowledging the invitation and deciding to attend Prime Minister-elect Narendra Modi’s swearing-in at Rashtrapati Bhavan, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday said she would not be attending the ceremony.
“The oath-taking ceremony is an august occasion to celebrate democracy, not one that should be devalued by any political party,” she said in her Twitter account.
“Congratulations, new Prime Minister, Narendra Modi Ji. It was my plan to accept the ‘Constitutional invitation’ and attend the oath-taking ceremony. However, in the last one hour, I am seeing media reports that the BJP is claiming that 54 people have been murdered in political violence in Bengal. This is untrue. There have been no political murders in Bengal. These deaths may have occurred due to personal enmity, family quarrels and other disputes; nothing related to politics. There is no such record with us, ” she said in a letter.
“So, I am sorry, Narendra Modi Ji, this has compelled me not to attend the ceremony. This ceremony is an august occasion to celebrate democracy, not one that should be devalued by any political party which uses it as an opportunity to score political points. Please excuse me,” she added.
On Tuesday, Banerjee said she would be attending the swearing-in ceremony as “constitutional courtesy”.
“I have spoken to a couple of other chief ministers and have decided to attend it. There are certain ceremonial programmes under the Constitution. We try to attend such events when we get an invitation for the swearing-in programmes of the President and the Prime Minister,” she stated on Tuesday at the state secretariat. (UNI)
