West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has followed in the footsteps of AP CM N. Chandrababu Naidu and she withdrew permission given to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to carry out any probe in her state. From now on, the CBI officials would have to take prior permission from WB in each and every case. There will be an exception only in court referred cases.

Announcing the ban on CBI, Mamata Banerjee told her party colleagues that this became necessary as the Modi government at the Centre has been misusing CBI to harass political opponents. She said that the CBI was being used to carry out raids and searches in the premises of rivals and their associates in non-BJP states. Appreciating the struggle launched by AP CM in opposing the BJP, Mamata Banerjee gave a call to all anti-BJP parties to rally together with unity to defeat the Modi government in 2019 general elections.

Way back in 1989, the then Left government in WB gave ‘general consent’ permission to CBI to carry out investigations in any case in that state. After so long, the present WB government withdrew the permission amid a political turmoil where non-BJP states are rising in revolt against the Modi government. Already, Karnataka and AP have banned the CBI from entering their states without prior permission.

The Congress welcomed Mamata’s decision saying that PM Modi and Amit Shah have been unfortunately using CBI and other central institutions as their private armies. On its part, the BJP has criticised Trinamool Congress saying that the ruling party in WB is neck deep in corruption which is why it is afraid of CBI.