Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday said that “politics of appeasement” in West Bengal had hurt its tradition of spirituality and religiosity. The home minister also urged people to vote for the saffron party in the Assembly elections scheduled next year.
Shah is on a two-day tour of the state to take stock of the party’s organisational matters ahead of the Assembly elections next year. He visited the Dakshineswar temple on Friday.
“Bengal is the birthplace of great spiritual leaders like Chaitanya, Ramkrishna and Swami Vivekananda,” Shah said. “But the politics of appeasement has robbed the state of its tradition of spirituality. I urge voters to vote for the BJP to revive the lost pride.”
Trinamool Congress, the ruling party in West Bengal criticised Shah’s statement, saying it was “unbecoming of a Union minister” to say such things.
“He should have considered the place [Dakshineshwar temple] from where he made the statements,” Tapas Roy, a minister in the state Cabinet told the Hindustan Times. “He tried to malign the rich culture and tradition of Bengal by dragging the names of its icons. The public will not tolerate these statements.”
Shah was greeted at the temple by members of state BJP Mohila Morcha, including its president Agnimitra Paul. Shah also met classical vocalist and Padmabhushan awardee Pandit Ajoy Chakraborty’s music school, where he met his students and family members.
Finishing his two-day visit, Shah said that Mamata Banerjee’s government in the state would fall and it would be the BJP’s turn to smile.
“This is the will of the people of Bengal,” Shah told reporters in Kolkata. “We will form the government in Bengal with over 200 seats.” The home minister had made the same claim about winning the state Assembly polls with a large margin in Bankura on Thursday.
He accused the TMC of indulging in corruption, saying that Banerjee’s “Maa, Maati, Manush” slogan, translated as “Mother, Motherland, and People”, has turned into “Tushtikaran, tanashahi aur tolbaaji” (appeasement, dictatorship and organised extortion).
He appealed to the people of Bengal to give the BJP a chance, saying that they have already voted Congress, Left and the TMC to power. “We promise to build shonar Bangla [golden Bengal] in five years,” he said. “Our aim is fixed, there should be development in Bengal. We will stop infiltration in Bengal, secure borders.”
“Mamata Banerjee has politicised administration, criminalised politics and institutionalised corruption,” the home minister alleged, adding that there was a rare chance that all these three things have happened at once in any other state.
He also accused the TMC government of indulging in corruption even while providing relief for cyclone disasters and the coronavirus pandemic. He said there are three different laws in the state – one for Abhishek Banerjee, Mamata Banerjee’s nephew, one for her vote bank and one for the common public.
Shah also asked why the chief minister has not sent the crime statistics to the National Crime Records Bureau and alleged that there was a law and order problem in the state. He appealed to the people to bring a state government in the state that would bring Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s schemes to the people of Bengal.
‘BJP will win more than 200 seats,’ says Shah
On Thursday, during his visit to Bankura district, Shah expressed confidence that his party will win more than 200 seats in the 294-member Assembly, in the state elections expected to take place in April-May next year.
“We lost a few seats in the Lok Sabha elections by small margins, or else you could have achieved the target of 22 seats,” he said, addressing party workers. “But today I am making this prediction that BJP will form government in Bengal winning more than 200 seats.”
However, Shah’s visit to Bankura district had its share of embarrassment too. The home minister offered flowers to a statue, which he was told was of Santhal rebellion hero Birsa Munda. However, locals later said that the statue was not of the 19th century freedom fighter but an “anonymous tribal hunter”, reported The Telegraph. Local BJP leadership tried to make amends by placing a picture of Munda at the foot of the statue after the faux pas was pointed out.
Trinamool Congress tweeted saying Shah was a “Bohiragoto [outsider]” and that he was ignorant of the state’s culture.
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