West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday countered allegations about her Trinamool Congress' funding patterns, including proceeds from sale of her paintings, asserting she doesn't take a penny from the earnings and her party files tax returns.
Her comments come a day after Bengal's ruling party furnished documents in response to a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) notice seeking its account details. The agency is probing the multi-crore-rupee Saradha Ponzi scheme scam.
"They (the BJP) are questioning my paintings and books. Who are they to ask these details?
"We have filed IT returns. I don't claim to be a professional painter. I draw on canvas whatever I feel like. If people give us even one penny from their hard-earned money, it is a big blessing for us. Proceeds from the sales of my paintings and books go to the party. I don't take a rupee. I even pay for my tea at Nabanna," she said.
Accusing the Opposition, Central investigating agencies and the media of trying to taint the image of Trinamool Congress, Mamata — while addressing a rally in Beliaghata, a Left Front stronghold, ahead of the April 18 KMC polls — said as a painter, she will decide how much her party can get from her paintings. This comes days after the CBI sent a notice to Trinamool seeking details of its income from 2010 to 2014.
"Three strokes of my brush can fetch Rs 10 lakh. Ibuy my own canvas, paints and brushes. I can sell my paintings for crores. Who are you to question me? Why are you criticising? I have sold 300 paintings and have also given out 600 for free. You don't see the free paintings. Even if I sold each painting for Rs 3 lakh, it would have fetched me Rs 9 crore," she said about the Opposition's allegations about her paintings being sold for lakhs of rupees.
"You can also try your hand in paintings and check whether people will buy them. On one side there is BJP and on the other, there is Biman (Left Front Chairman Biman Bose)," she added.
"I can write and you cannot write. Nobody has stopped you from writing. You can write but nobody will buy books written by you because they will not believe your writings. But I can challenge you that if I write a book, they will have the maximum sale," Mamata claimed, stating that her books have the maximum sale in the annual KolkataInternational Book Fair.
She added that she has not taken any salary, used the office car or even drank tea at the government's expenses. "I don't want any certificate from you but there is a limit to which a person can endure. I am only trying to make the party stand on its own feet," she claimed.
Mamata hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over CBI notice to her party asking for details of its accounts, saying "nothing happens without his orders". "The CBI is the Prime Minister's department, nothing happens without his orders," Mamata alleged.
"We have submitted our accounts to the IT department and the Election Commission. Why is the CBI asking for the same again? And why only single out our party? Why can't the Congress, CPM and BJP be questioned about their wealth? It is a ploy of theCentre to malign us before the elections. This has happened several times before," said Mamata.
Times of India reports:
Mamata Banerjee's first poll speech at Burrabazar's Satyanarayan Park, a BJP bastion, turned out to be a spirited defence of the sale of her paintings as well as the mismatch between the statements of accounts filed with the Election Commission and transfer of hefty funds to party accounts.
But, if Mamata made an admission on the party accounts, she also did a cover-up in the same breath. She made an oblique reference to Mukul Roy's wrongdoings, and then hurriedly gave him a clean chit, possibly fearing that her admission may go viral.
"If someone has done wrong, it is his fault. We should not be blamed for that. One within our party was entrusted with this responsibility. He is not there in the post anymore. He has not told me anything about it. Now I am overseeing everything. But I don't see anything wrong," Mamata said. While her detractors read in the statement a bid to pass the blame to Mukul, others saw in the cover-up a window left open to build bridges with her former lieutenant.
Mamata's spending the larger part of her 80-minute speech on the controversy surrounding party funds and paintings was proof enough that it bothers the Trinamool chief that her clean image has taken a beating. This could be why she sent her partymen to CBI's office on Thursday with a suitcase full of papers relating to TMC's earnings and expenditure within 24 hours of slamming the Modi government and CBI for seeking information on her party's assets.
"Let me make one thing clear. It is not a question of selling one or two paintings. Over 250/300 paintings were sold by Jago Bangla in open exhibitions. The exhibitions were organized over several years (2-3 years). Only one painting fetched Rs 20 lakh. It was a gigantic painting like the size of a house. The others fetched around Rs 2.5 lakh. Some were given away for free," Mamata said at the rally.
Defending the sale of paintings as a funding-raising venture to support the party's poll campaign, she said, "We are a small party. We don't have crores like other parties to launch multi-crore ad campaign. We have demanded electoral reforms since 1995. We demand state funding of elections. There is no hide and seek. Jago Bangla did an open exhibition of my paintings. They filed an affidavit. We also donated money from the sale of paintings to charity."
Mamata added that she didn't pocket the proceeds from the sale of the paintings. "The money went to Jago Bangla. It was an open exhibition. Is it possible to know the buyers? The total sale was around Rs 2 crore (Rs 2.53 crore). Of this, the party donated Rs 1.10 crore to the Chief Minister's relief fund. When I became the CM the fund balance was nil. Another Rs 10 lakh was given to the Governor's relief fund," she said.
The chief minister then hit out at BJP. "Now let me ask you (read BJP) how much did Vedanta give you? How much did Sahara give you? Or, for that matter, the Rs 50,000 crore chit fund bust in Delhi, whose perpetrators are still on the run," she thundered.
READ ALSO: Sale of Mamata Banerjee's painting for Rs 1.8 crore under CBI lens
Mamata then returned to her pet conspiracy theory. "Trinamool Congress had arrested Sudipta Sen from Kashmir's Dras Batalik. We repaid back 5 lakh depositors around Rs 200 crore. Kunal Ghosh was a Trinamool Congress MP. Who arrested him? We did. Unlike you (read BJP) our annual returns have been filed with the IT department and Election Commission. Today, since you are in power you are sending notices. You are showing your power. But let me tell you this will not silence us," she said.
Claiming that CBI functions directly under PMO, Mamata alleged that the agency's notice was a fallout of Trinamool Congress's opposition to several "anti-people" bills. "Narendra Modi can send 500 notices to Trinamool if he wants. We will not budge from our stand on the land bill," she said.
Telegraph reports:
Mamata's Midas brush- Rs 2cr something to Rs 9cr, in 48 hours flat | |
 GO FIGURE, CALCUTTA Mamata Banerjee at the civic poll campaign rally in Beliaghata on Sunday. Picture by Sanat Kr Sinha Mamata Banerjee has put money mavens and Wall Street whiz kids to shame: the earnings from the sale of her paintings have ballooned by 200-350 per cent in a matter of 48 hours. On Sunday evening, the chief minister put the earnings at Rs 9 crore — dramatically up from the "Rs 2 crore and something" Mamata had mentioned on Friday at a Burrabazar meeting. MAMATA'S SUNDAY MATHS Beliaghata, civic poll campaign rally, Sunday evening: "Nearly 300 paintings of mine were sold in two or three exhibitions and Rs 9 crore was earned in total, each of them costing Rs 3 lakh. Besides, I have distributed nearly 600 paintings free of cost," the chief minister said. MAMATA'S FRIDAY MATHS Burrabazar, civic poll rally, Friday: "In two or three exhibitions where around 250-300 paintings were showcased, we received Rs 2 crore something from the sale. None of my paintings sold for Rs 2 crore. Only one painting sold for Rs 20 lakh. There were some paintings that sold for between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 5 lakh," Mamata said. MUKUL ROY'S MATHS Earnings from "sale of painting" (the artist's name is not mentioned) submitted by Mukul Roy, the then general secretary of Trinamul, to the Election Commission of India in September 2013: Rs 6.47 crore (Rs 3.94 crore in 2011-12 and Rs 2.53 crore in 2012-13) POOR MATHS  • Between Friday and Sunday, the chief minister's estimate of the earnings has gone up by at least Rs 6 crore.Wall Street hotshots will give an arm and more for such head-spinning spurts. Even on the stock markets, such surges take place only on penny stocks — shares of small companies used by manipulators for "pump and dump" schemes. Market lore has it that the rapper 50 Cent used tweets to push up the price of a penny stock and pocketed a cool $8.7-million profit. • Chief minister Mamata Banerjee is not known to play the markets. So, she cannot be accused of such manipulations. On Sunday, too, she led by example, pointing out that "I have purchased brush, canvas and everything from my own pocket". • The gap between Mamata's maths and Mukul's maths has undergone a dramatic change. On Friday, Mukul's sum was above Mamata's by Rs 4.47 crore (if you leave out the "something" in the chief minister's Rs 2-crore-plus estimate.) But after Sunday, in keeping with Mamata's stature, she has pulled past Mukul's sum by Rs 2.53 crore. • On Friday, Mamata had said one painting sold for Rs 20 lakh and some fetched between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 5 lakh. On Sunday, a definitive figure of Rs 3 lakh per painting was mentioned. It makes calculations easy: 300 paintings multiplied by Rs 3 lakh apiece: Rs 9 crore. NO MATHS, PLEASE Asked about the numbers, a senior — and an exasperated — minister said: "I would suggest that she concentrate on the development work that has been done for Calcutta during the last five years instead of talking about the earnings from paintings. This has confused things." http://www.telegraphindia.com/1150413/jsp/frontpage/story_14336.jsp#.VStv8dyUdJk |