On Tuesday, May 9, former Rajya Sabha MP and BJP ‘leader’ Subramaniam Swamy showered praises on West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and said that she should be the Prime Minister of India. Swamy also asserted that the country needs a genuine political opposition that is not afraid of the ruling Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP).
“Mamata Banerjee should be the Prime Minister of India. She is a gutsy woman, just look at how she fought the communists. I met her ten days ago but nobody knows about that,” Swamy said during an interactive session at an event organized by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) in Kolkata.
When asked about details of his meeting with the West Bengal CM, Swamy said that it was about the upcoming Lok Sabha elections and what shape the Indian economy would be in 2024.
Swamy further asserted that “Mamata Banerjee is the only woman leader who has the guts to stand up,” in response to a question regarding who he thinks is the most powerful woman leader in India. Swamy also said that there was a time Jayalalitha could have been, then at a time thought of Mayawati but in the present scenario Swamy opined that Mamata Banerjee is the most powerful woman in the country as “she is not complicit” and that it is “impossible to blackmail her”.
Concerning the opposition, Subramanian Swamy stated that the country requires a genuine opposition that is neither ‘afraid’ nor a ‘friend’ of the ruling party, claiming that opposition parties do not go beyond a point against the BJP because they are afraid of being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) or another probe agency.
“I know a lot of people today. They will not go beyond a point against the present government. Because they are afraid that ED will turn up or something else will turn up. That’s not good for Indian democracy,” Swamy said.
Interestingly, this is not the first time that Subramaniam Swamy has heaped praises on the Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo.
In 2021, Swamy lauded Mamata Banerjee and compared her to JP (Jayaprakash Narayan), Rajiv Gandhi, Morarji Desai and PV Narasimha Rao.
“Of all the politicians I have met or worked with, Mamata Banerjee ranks with JP, Morarji Desai, Rajiv Gandhi, Chandrashekhar, and P V Narasimha Rao who meant what they said and said what they meant. In Indian politics that is a rare quality,” Swamy tweeted back in 2021.
Moreover, last year, Swamy who often likes to call himself a ‘Virat Hindu’ met the West Bengal CM in Kolkata even after several Hindus were killed in the state in post-poll violence in 2021. Swamy once again heaped praises on Banerjee as he tweeted, “Today I was in Kolkata and met the charismatic Mamata Banerjee. She is a courageous person. I admired her fight against the CPM in which she decimated the Communists.”
