India, Oct. 8 -- West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday referred to what's perhaps Indian history's infamous case of betrayal - by Mir Jafar in 1757 - to give some cautionary advice to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. She said home minister Amit Shah, effectively Number 2 in the central government, is "behaving like an acting PM".

"I want to tell Prime Minister Narendra Modi not to put too much faith in Amit Shah. He may one day become his Mir Jafar," said the Trinamool Congress supremo at the Kolkata airport after her return from flood-ravaged north Bengal.

Mir Jafar (1691-1765) was a military general who betrayed the ruler Sirajuddaulah, the Nawab of pre-partition Bengal-Bihar, in the Battle of Plassey that took place in...