Home Minister Rajnath Singh held West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee "responsible" for the recent incidents of violence in the state alleging that anarchy existed there.
The party had targeted Banerjee for the arrest of its youth activist Priyanka Sharma for sharing a meme of the CM, and Finance minister Arun Jaitley compared her to a dictator who does not like people laughing at her.
He said "Humour, wit, sarcasm survive in a free society. They have no place in autocracies. Dictators laugh at people. They don't like people laughing at them. Bengal, today is a case in point.”
The Supreme Court on Tuesday had ordered an immediate release of Priyanka Sharma on bail while asking her to tender a "written apology" at the time of her release from jail for sharing the meme.
During a press conference, in reply a question, Singh said that freedom of speech does not mean "abusing" somebody, but added to another question that all sorts of pictures depicting leaders, including him, are put out routinely.
On another question about the court asking her to apologize, he said it can be challenged.
Singh then slammed the state government for incidents of political violence during elections and asked Banerjee to take responsibility for them.
"Law and order are a primary responsibility of a chief minister. She is unable to stop it... There is anarchy. I hold the state government responsible," he told the reporters.
He also said that the central government can do little in the matter and it was for the Election Commission to take notice.
He also called out at the state CM for not answering PM Narendra Modi's call to her when Cyclone Fani hit the region, saying this might have been the first time when a CM did not respond to a PM's call.
"If a chief minister behaves like this, then what will happen to India's federal structure, its constitution," he asked.