As unrest over 'cut money' spreads across Bengal after Mamata's remarks, TMC says 99.99% leaders honest

At a recent meeting with TMC councillors, Banerjee had said: "I do not want to keep thieves in my party. If I take action they will join some other party. Some leaders are claiming 25-per cent commission for providing housing grants to the poor. This should stop immediately. Return the money if any of you have taken it." Her diktat did not go down well with the rank and file of the party as several councillors and party leaders questioned the directive.

"It's a sort of insult. If we had taken any cut money then we had also given a major chunk of it to top party leaders. What about that? Will they also return that money?" asked a senior TMC leader from Nadia district.

Trinamool Congress MP Satabdi Roy said Banerjee should have initiated measures to stop the practice much earlier.

"A person who has taken cut money directly is only the front man. There are others who are behind him. They have also taken their share. So the money has to be returned according to this chain," Roy had said.

The BJP, Congress and the CPI(M) had mocked the ruling party over the protests and said the "corruption of TMC leaders" was now out in open.

"It was a well-known open secret that the TMC seeks cut money and commission. Now, the masses are protesting against it," BJP state president Dilip Ghosh said.

Congress state president Somen Mitra demanded that all the TMC leaders, including elected representatives, should make public the amount of assets they have. 

At a time, when Mamata Banerjee is coming down hard on local TMC leaders for taking what’s colloquially called ‘cut money’, a Trinamool MP has publicly spoken about the ‘chaos’ due to Mamata’s recent diktat.

Satabdi Roy wondered if Didi’s diktat applied to the ‘big fish’ as well.

In comments that will leave Banerjee embarrassed, Satabdi Roy was a two-time Birbhum MP was quoted saying by a leading Kolkata daily: “ “Didi should pay attention to this. It shouldn’t happen that those who took two per cent, one per cent, are stopped from taking (cuts) while those taking more, their percentage increases even more. “That will increase the confusion within the party. Nobody is getting — but somebody is getting more…. Ultimately cut money, the total sum, stays the same — that situation should not arise. Didi should keep an eye on that.”

Trinamool Congress MP Satabdi Roy said Banerjee should have initiated measures to stop the practice much earlier.

"A person who has taken cut money directly, is only the front man. There are others who are behind him. They have also taken their share, so the money has to be returned according to this chain," Roy said in New Delhi Thursday.

 She stressed that steps ought to have been taken much earlier, and claimed that what was taken ‘chain-wise’ ought to be retained ‘chain-wise’.

The BJP was obviously thrilled to bits with the TMC infighting and Dilip Ghosh claimed that the Bengal CM had said it ‘without thinking’.

A song by Bengali pop singer Nachiketa has gone viral in Bengal in which he has warned those who took ‘cut money’ – the colloquial term in Bengal for leaders taking cutbacks.

The song doesn’t reference any party but does have a reference to dada and didimoni. Banerjee is popularly referred to as Didi.

Union Minister and BJP leader and former Bollywood singer Babul Supriyo appeared to enjoy the lyrics as he shared it on Twitter calling it the perfect ‘satire’

মানুষের মনের কথা গানের মাধ্যমে সঠিক মাত্রার 'Sattire’-এর তড়কা লাগিয়ে সকলের সামনে নিয়ে আসার জন্য নচিকেতা-দাকে আমার অশেষ ধন্যবাদ pic.twitter.com/eBrLP31K3X

— Babul Supriyo (@SuPriyoBabul) June 22, 2019