Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on June 16 accused the BJP of targeting citizens who are speaking Bengali in the states where the saffron party is ruling. The accusation comes amid reports of police detaining residents of West Bengal in Maharashtra on suspicion of being illegal migrants and pushing them into Bangladesh.
While speaking in the Assembly, Mamata said, “You (pointing to the BJP MLAs) must be ashamed that you are labelling bona fide Indian citizens as Bangladeshis just because of the language they speak. One should feel proud to speak in Bengali, as well as Gujarati, Marathi, Hindi. If you ask me, I can speak in all these languages.”
She further said, “On one hand, you are branding Indians as Bangladeshis for their spoken word, and on the other, you are depriving these people, who hold voter ID, PAN, and Aadhaar cards, of the right to earn their livelihood in your states.” The BJP legislators protested against Mamata Banerjee’s remarks and raised slogans both inside and outside the state Assembly.
CM Banerjee levelled further accusations, this time against the BJP-led Centre over the MGNREGA funds. She said, “The Central government has illegally stopped Bengal’s MGNREGA funds. Even states with double-engine (BJP) governments have faced corruption charges, but their funds haven’t been stopped. Only Bengal’s legitimate dues have been withheld. This is a corrupt government.”
She informed that the state government, despite getting little help from the BJP, has laid 69,000 km of roads under Pathashree and initiated Awas Yojana with Rs 11,000 crore. She added, “Bengal has topped road and rural housing project rankings five times in a row.” She claimed that her government had created 1.5 crore mandays under various schemes and people in Bengal are getting 50 days of employment on average.
CM Banerjee said, “While on one hand you deprive the poor people of Bengal, on the other, the procession of deaths in various mishaps continues in your states,” and she hit back at the protesting BJP MLAs, saying that they “lacked the power” to win even a seat of councillor.
