Amit Shah launches scathing attack against Mamata Banerjee

Vibha Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 9

After Bihar, Home Minister and former BJP president Amit Shah on Tuesday turned his attention to the Trinamool Congress-governed West Bengal, kicking off the party’s campaign for assembly elections due in April 2021.

Shah listed achievements of the Narendra Modi government in the six years at the Centre while launching the most scathing attack against Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, accusing her of depriving people of Bengal of the Centre’s welfare schemes like Ayushman Bharat and PM Kisaan.

“Let elections be over, within a minute of the taking over of the BJP Chief Minister, Ayushman Bharat will be implemented,” Shah said, speaking on multiple social media platforms.

“I urge Mamata Banerjee to give us the list of poor farmers in the state we will immediately send her the money for poor farmers in the state,” he said accusing her party of indulging in violence, ‘toll baazi’ and corruption even during coronavirus crisis and ‘super cyclone’ Amphan.

Stating that the corona crisis will not be able to stop the BJP’s outreach for people, he thanked people of the state for giving the BJP 18 of the 42 seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. “The BJP won 303 seats (in 2019 elections) but for a ‘karykarta’ like me the most important seats were 18 seats given by Bengal.”

“Bengal is the only state where ‘hinsa ka karobaar’ (business of violence) is taking place. We had asked the people of Bengal to join hands with PM for the benefit of the state. They accepted the appeal and gave 18 out of 42 seats,” he said, urging people to give one opportunity to the BJP to make it a ‘Sonar Bangla’ again.

“You have tried the Communists and Trinamool, now give one opportunity to BJP,” he told people in the state.

Shah also attacked the Congress for doing vote bank politics and trying to stall the Citizenship Act for “narrow political gains” and “minority appeasement”.

Accusing Mamata of the same, he said: “I saw the face of Mamata Banerjee that day (when CAA was cleared). I want to ask her how have the poor refugees from Bangladesh harmed you?”

“You are objecting against the CAA. When the ballot boxes are opened you will see that people have made you a political ‘sharnarthi’ (refugee). Your objections against CAA will cost you dear,” Shah said.

“She alleges the BJP is trying to unsettle her in Bengal. I want to tell her don’t worry people of Bengal will soon do that,” he said, accusing her of trying to stall migrant labourers of returning home.

“You called ‘shramik express’ ‘corona express’. Let me tell you the same corona express will take you out of the state. Poor migrants will never forget your insults and insensitivities,” he said, launching an attack against Banerjee for turning ‘Sonar Bangla’ into a poor state with corruption and mismanagement.

“Can violence be a way to stop change? Is violence against BJP cadres, is it democracy? Let me tell you the more you spread ‘hinsa ka keechad’, the better ‘kamal’ will bloom,” he added.

The Home Minister said the BJP was not there for politics or expand the footprint of the party but to make the state “a sonar, sanskritik Bangla”.

“It is time for change,” he said.

Praising PM for giving the country exemplary leadership during the corona crisis, he also credited party president JP Nadda for giving the party a good way to contact people via virtual rallies. “Whenever the history of Indian politics is written there will be a chapter on virtual rallies,” he said.

BJP leaders said the rally kicked off a political change in this state. In Bihar, 70,000 LED TV sets were put up across the state. The ‘samvaad’ will definitely bring good results for people of Bengal,” they said.

“What BJP can afford, we cannot,” West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said when asked if she planned a similar virtual rally on July 21, the day Trinamool holds its annual mega rally to observe “Martyrs’ Day”.

On Monday, Shah today told cadres in Odisha, a state governed by non-NDA Biju Janata Dal, to make it a ‘garh’, a bastion of the BJP.

Becoming the first party off the blocks amid the Covid-19 crisis to give wings to its political activities and ambitions with virtual rallies, the BJP and the Centre have received criticism over the plight and sufferings of migrants following Prime Minister Modi’s four-hour notice for the countrywide lockdown and delay in evacuation of migrant workers.