Discrimination is a charge to mask state's failure: Cong

The Congress on Tuesday rejected Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's charge of discrimination against non-UPA states by the Centre, saying that the blame was put on the central government to cover up a state's failure.

"When a state fails to perform, it blames the Centre to cover up its failure. In the past Jyoti Basu did it and now the present Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is doing the same," WBPCC president Pradip Bhattacharya said while commenting on Modi's statement which echoed Mamata's oft-repeated charge of central discrimination against non-UPA states.

"Our chief minister is speaking in the same tune as that of Modi," he said.

Mamata had on Monday said that the Centre had imposed an economic blockade against West Bengal and that she was going to Delhi to seek justice and protest against it.

CPM state secretary Biman Bose, while finding fault with Modi's soft attitude towards Mamata Banerjee, said, "She has sent him flowers on his victory. They also talk. He (Modi) is here and he won't be patting her back, it is unusual," Bose, also the Left Front chairman, said.