Kabir Suman has right to air his view: Mamata Banerjee

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KOLKATA - A day after noted singer Kabir Suman criticised mainstay political parties for misusing government funds, Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee Monday said it was his democratic right to express his opinion and the Trinamool Congress did not see the matter as a “major issue”.

“It’s a very small matter. Suman is a creative person and he has the democratic right to express his own opinion,” Banerjee said.

“We don’t want to make it an issue and we’ll talk it out within our party. You don’t have to be so worried about that,” said Banerjee, who is the Trinamool Congress chief.

“Kabir Suman is our guest in the party. He was never a Trinamool Congress worker. He is a civil society representative in our party and we respect him for his creativity.”

“I’ll look into the matter that he has raised. It’s true that our panchayats should function better,” she said, adding that Trinamool will sort out the issue as early as possible.

“When our government will come to power, we’ll try to address the functioning of the panchayat system, so that it could become more accountable to the people,” she said.

Suman, a Trinamool Congress MP from South 24-Parganas’ Jadavpur constituency, Sunday said that he did not see any difference between the CPI-M and the opposition parties in misusing funds allocated for development work.

He also termed himself as a ‘party slave’.

“Everyone is concerned about their own political gain and nothing else,” said Suman, who had trounced CPI-M heavyweight Sujan Chakraborty from the district’s Jadavpur constituency in the April-May general elections this year.