Defence Minister Parrikar flays Mamata in letter over army row

In a letter to the Trinamool Congress chief, the content of which found way to media, Parrikar said he was "deeply pained" by the accusations of the Chief Minister.

"Political parties and politicians may have the luxury of making wild and unsubstantiated allegations against each other but one needs to be extremely careful while referring to our armed forces," his letter read referring to the standoff by Banerjee after army personnel were found at various toll booths in West Bengal.

Mamata Banerjee, who camped in state secretariat Nabanna for over 30 hours last week, had said that the Centre was deploying army and creating a coup like situation for her opposition to demonetisation policy of the Modi government.

The Defence Minister said in the letter that he did not expect the allegations from "someone of your standing and experience".

"Your allegations run the risk of adversely impacting the moral of the country's armed forces and the same were not expected from a person of your standing and experience in public life,"  Parrikar wrote.

"If only you had enquired with the concerned agencies of the state government, you would have come to know of the extensive correspondence between the army and the state agencies including the joint inspection of the sites carried out by them."

In a reaction to the letter, Trinamool Congress MP Derek O Brien told electronic media outside Parliament: "The letter has not reached  the West Bengal Chief Minister and its already leaked to media. We will give a befitting reply when it comes."

Earlier, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s West Bengal President Dilip Ghosh  said that they would be filing a case in Calcutta High Court against state's  Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for her controversial statement over recently conducted army exercise in Bengal.

A four-member delegation on BJP, led by its state president Dilip Ghosh, met Bengal governor- Keshari Nath Tripathi on the issue.

Last week, 'unarmed' troops were deployed at several toll plazas, including Vidyasagar Setu toll plaza in front of state secretariat Nabanno in Kolkata, in the state to what army called conducting  its annual exercise to get statistical data about  the load carriers that could be made available to the army in case of a contingency.

Alleging that the army was deployed in the state without Bengal government's consent and the Central government had sent army for a "military coup", the Chief Minister stayed in the secretariat overnight to 'guard' the state and democracy.

However, the Eastern Command of Indian Army  denied all allegations, made by Trinamool supremo and stated that it was only an annual exercise of army, nothing else.

Following the incident, a TMC delegation, led by party's Secretary General Partha Chatterjee, met state governor Keshari Nath Tripathi   in Kolkata's Raj Bhaban (Governor's Palace) as well and put forward a memorandum to him, describing the alleged army deployment.

Meanwhile, when he was asked about Mamata Banerjee's allegation against army, WB governor Keshari Nath Tripathi told the media, "Every person should take care in making allegations against a responsible organization like Indian Army."

Protesting Tripathi's reaction, Mamata Banerjee tweeted: "Governor is speaking in the voice of Central Government!! He was not in the city for about 8 days."