Parrikar said he did not expect this from a "person of her standing and experience."
The allegations made by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee against the Indian Army "run the risk of impacting the morale of the force," Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, in a letter to Banerjee on December 8, expressed his displeasure over the controversy triggered by her regarding the deployment of the Army near her office.
"Political parties and politicians may have the luxury of making wild and unsubstantiated allegations against each other, but one needs to be extremely careful when referring to the Armed Forces," Parrikar said in the letter.
Parrikar said he did not expect this from a "person of her standing and experience."
"As the Defence Minister, I thought it appropriate and necessary to bring to your notice the feeling of our armed forces and the people at large for your consideration."
Mamata Banerjee, who is not one to take things lying down, said, "I take strong exception to your wild assertion that my articulation of the rights of the state government vis-a-vis the Army's deployment without clearance has impacted the morale of the Armed Forces."
"Your general observations that political parties and politicians have the luxury of making unsubstantiated allegations may be apt for your party, but we do not belong to that group," she said in a two-page reply.
The Chief Minister also said the defence ministry has not taken prior permission from the state government before deploying Army personnel in civilian areas.
The letter was written in response to allegations made by Mamata on December 1 raising doubts about Army deployment at a toll plaza near the Chief Minister's secretariat in Kolkata.
The state government has also alleged that the Army was denied pernmission to carry out any exercise.
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