The rift between the Narendra Modi government and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee saw another front opening on Friday when defence minister Manohar Parrikar said the Trinamul chief’s remarks on the Army at tollgates in West Bengal could ‘adversely’ affect the morale of the forces’. Banerjee was quick to take ‘strong exception’ to the defence minister’s letter.

The West Bengal CM and her Trinamul Congress party have already been at loggerheads with the government on demonetisation, reports the Deccan Chronical.

‘Your allegations in this regard run the risk of adversely impacting the morale of the country’s armed forces and the same was not expected from a person of your standing and experience in public life,’ Parrikar said in his strongly worded letter. In it, he said that while political parties and politicians had the luxury of making ‘wild and unsubstantiated allegations against each other’, one must be extremely careful while referring to the armed forces.

Pained over Parrikar’s allegations, she said, ‘They don’t know how to write to a CM.’

‘Don’t think that it behoves a Union government minister to pass near-defamatory remarks on a CM of any state,’ she added.  Banerjee had accused the Central government of having deployed the Army at toll plazas in West Bengal without informing the state government and described it as ‘unprecedented’ and ‘a very serious situation... worse than the Emergency’.

She had refused to leave her office in Kolkata till the Armymen were withdrawn from the toll plazas and had asked whether it was an ‘Army coup’, that drew a sharp reaction from the Centre.  Parrikar said the West Bengal CM’s objection was an ‘avoidable controversy’ as the Eastern Command in West Bengal carried out the exercise.