TMC advises Trivedi against speaking on Narada sting

NEW DELHI: West Bengal chief minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee has got into a damage control mode, after party MP and former railway minister

Dinesh Trivedi

spoke out publicly against the Narada bribery scandal. The sting operation by the channel showed some TMC MPs and MLAs allegedly accepting cash from representatives of a fictitious company.


It is learnt that on Saturday, senior TMC leader Mukul Roy called Trivedi in Delhi, purportedly on behalf of Banerjee, following Trivedi's outburst the previous day and asked him not to say anything further on the issue publicly.

However this time Trivedi has not being reprimanded for speaking against the party's interest, or any disciplinary action is being mulled against the former Union minister.

Trivedi has faced action earlier for going against the party.

He was sacked from his railway minister’s post by Banerjee during the UPA-II regime, within hours of hiking fares in the railway budget without the consent of the TMC chief.

He was one of the first to speak out after the Narada scandal broke out earlier during the budget session of Parliament.

At a closed door meeting of party MPs in Delhi he said, the Narada revelations should be looked into. Soon after, both Trivedi and TMC MP Saugata Bose disobeyed party orders and stayed away from a protest agitation against the government at the Gandhi statue in Parliament premises.

Trivedi on Friday suggested that his party MPs purportedly seen accepting money from a fictitious company in a sting operation, should “sit at home till the time they come out clean” from charges levelled against them.

Speaking at a panel discussion organised by CII here, Trivedi though maintained that the party's very 'top' and 'bottom,' i.e Mamata Banerjee herself, and ground level workers, are “absolutely okay.”

“They (the MPs) should, let's say if I were the president of the party, I would have just said you come out clean and tell us what it is. And till time you are clear, you sit at home,” Trivedi said when asked if the TMC MPs accused of accepting money be thrown out of party. He was replying to an audience question on why no TMC MPs resigned after many of them were seen taking bribe in the Narada sting operation.

Trivedi, further said, the accused party leaders, both MPs and MLAs, should ask for a probe in the matter if they felt they have “not done anything.”

He also referred to BJP veteran L K Advani’s resignation from Parliament when his name appeared in the hawala scam and how he returned only after he was absolved of it.