In what the State saffron leadership called a sign of “pre-Parivartan” (change) trepidation, Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday warned the people of Bengal against any possible takeover of power by the BJP, saying, “there will be disaster if BJP comes to power in Bengal,” vowing to prevent its surge at any cost.
The Chief Minister, while addressing a rally at Cooch Behar in North Bengal, alleged that special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls would bring the national citizenship register (NRC) and detention camps in the State, vowing to prevent it at any cost. She asked the people to remain alert about their rights and “ensure that your names do not get deleted from the voters’ lists.”
On why she was “forced to comply to the orders of the Election Commission of India implementing the SIR regime in Bengal she said, “it was due to the threat of President’s Rule that we had to do it or else they would have allowed the time to lapse and implemented President’s Rule which would be a de facto BJP rule in Bengal and then they would have conducted and manipulated the elections.”
“SIR is not a single scheme, it will bring in its trail NRC and detention camps this is all being done by the BJP to usurp power in our State and remember if Bengal goes into the hands of the BJP then there will be disaster, there will be no self-respect, no peace, no security for the people there will be only jealousy and hatred and the whole State will become a detention camp,” Banerjee said adding “we will not allow the State to turn into a detention camp, we will protect it at any cost we will not allow NRC in Bengal there will be no detention camp in our State I will prevent this at any cost.”
The Chief Minister, who rolled out a list of old deprivation of the State at the hands of the Centre, all in terms of clearance of central funds from MNREGA, rural housing and rural road construction schemes, said how the Centre had the gall to find out ways to preempt the orders of the Court to prevent MNREGA dues to come to her State.
She said, that her government received a letter from Delhi wherein a quarterly labour budget was demanded from the State Government. “Even after the Courts have ordered them to clear the funds, they have imposed a restrictive condition but where is the time to show it? This is December, and the election is due early next year. Then they are also talking about providing training. My question is, when will you train and when will you give the jobs? I say this piece of paper is valueless.” Bengal did not want mercy it asked for its rights, she said.
Hitting out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for addressing writer Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay as “Bankim da” (brother Bankim) in Parliament — which was objected to by TMC MP Saugato Roy prompting the Prime Minister to correct his words calling him “Bankim Babu” — the Chief Minister demanded his apology saying, “you did not even show him the minimum respect he deserves. You should apologise for this, to the nation.”
Chattopadhyay, the writer of the patriotic novel Ananda Math, coined the word, Vande Mataram. It is a part of India’s National Song.
Referring to the Chief Minister’s diatribe against the BJP Union Minister and former State party president Sukanata Majumdar said it was a sign of her fear that the BJP was coming to power in Bengal. “Her fear is evident from her speech, which itself speaks volumes of her reading of the situation that the BJP is coming to power in Bengal,” Majumdar said, adding, “the Chief Minister’s fear of SIR is due to the fact that her vote bank comprising Bangladeshi, Rohingya voters is getting deleted through the SIR and defeat awaits her.”
