Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee (Express photo by Subham Dutta/File)
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday said that the Congress was wrong in submitting an impeachment notice against Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra. Mamata told News18 Bangla channel that the Congress had sought the Trinamool Congress’s support in their initiative but the party refused since there was “no merit” in it.
“The Congress was wrong to give an impeachment notice against the CJI. The Congress wanted us to support it. But we did not, because we knew there was no merit in it. There was no majority (supporting the move) and I had apprehended that it would not receive much support. I told Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi not to go for impeachment,” she said.
Vice President and Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu on Monday rejected the notice by seven opposition parties to impeach the CJI on grounds of “misbehaviour”. Naidu’s decision, which came within two days of the notice being submitted to him, was slammed as “hasty, illegal and ill-informed” by the Congress.
On Tuesday, Mamata said her party did not want to interfere in the judiciary. “Some court verdicts can come in our favour and some may not. That does not mean I will target the judge. I don’t believe in interfering in the judiciary. We respect the judiciary and we believe in it,” she said.
During the live show on the channel, Mamata also slammed a Bengali media house for allegedly spreading lies and misleading news about the state government and influencing the state panchayat polls. She alleged that the media house was funded by the BJP and was working to malign the state government and the TMC.
The Chief Minister asked the people of the state not to read the newspaper or watch the news channel of that particular media group.