Mamata hits out against 'vested interests', 'influential media'

Kolkata, May 21 (IANS) Claiming that her government was being constantly pressurised to change its stand on many issues, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has accused "vested interests" and "influential media" of running a malicious campaign against the regime.

"Everyday, we are pressurised to change our stand on many a thing, or at least revise those. We are threatened to do so from many quarters. A sustained and concerted campaign of lies and half-truths to malign us is the name of the game now," Banerjee wrote in a book to commemorate her government's one year in office.

Banerjee, who has written a four-page prologue of the 182-page "Hope to Reality', goes on to accuse the media and some vested interests of running a malicious campaign.

"The new-born government has been subjected to relentless and baseless malice from vested interests and influential media. A culture of making mountains out of molehills is holding sway and a chorus of negativity fills the air at every drop of a hat," said Banerjee.

Banerjee accused her critics of undermining the government's achievements. "Our detractors seem to entirely ignore the facts and reality - how precarious the situation is and how we are making impossible things happen through sheer determination and hard work."

"The only thing that rules their judgement is petty, vested interest. If we do not subscribe to those, which, in most cases, are anti-people, they turn the air blue with insinuations and declamatory aggression," she said.