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PM Modi’s 2016 Bengal speech is Trinamool’s ammo against BJP over Morbi tragedy
PM Modi made the 2016 speech criticising the West Bengal government, telling a rally that the flyover collapse was not an act of God as claimed by the construction company but “an act of fraud”
The Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Monday targeted the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the Morbi bridge collapse, recalling a speech made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in West Bengal when a section of a flyover collapsed in Kolkata killing more than 20 people.
“In 2016, Modi said the flyover collapse in Kolkata was not an act of God but an act of fraud. We dare him to repeat the exact words in Gujarat. So many people died in Morbi because God cursed the BJP for its nationwide activities,” Kunal Ghosh, TMC state general secretary, said in Kolkata.
Ghosh’s reference to PM Modi’s speech was made on April 7, 2016 at a BJP rally at Madarihat in north Bengal days after a section of an under construction flyover in Kolkata collapsed on March 31.
“A flyover collapsed in the heart of Kolkata recently but the state government did not take prompt action. Several people lost their lives and were injured severely but the Left front and TMC kept blaming each other for the incident. The construction company said it was act of God but instead it was an act of fraud”, PM Modi said in his speech, according to the transcript on his personal website.
Ghosh’s dig at the BJP and PM Modi came hours after the Bengal government received intimation from Gujarat on Monday that Habibul Sheikh, a 17-year-old goldsmith from Purbasthali in Bengal’s East Burdwan district, was among the scores to have died in Sunday evening’s tragedy. Sheikh’s family told the police that he was working at his uncle’s jewellery workshop at Morbi for the last eight months.
Ghosh also asked if the BJP was going to send a fact-finding team to Gujarat.
“The BJP sends fact-finding teams whenever an untoward incident takes place. Let it send a fact-finding team to Morbi. Let it say why the Central Bureau of investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) should not probe the Morbi incident. Let it reveal who was responsible for it and how many will finally face punitive action,” said Ghosh.
BJP national vice-president Dilip Ghosh countered the Trinamool, saying the cable bridge was set up by the British more than a century ago.
Ghosh said: “The Gujarat government did not construct the bridge. It was repaired recently. People responsible for the incident will be taken to task. The BJP does not send fact-finding teams to probe incidents that the local government is capable of handling. The Gujarat government will handle the situation.”
To be sure, the Gujarat police on Monday evening announced that nine people associated with a company that maintained the bridge in Morbi have been arrested in connection with its collapse that killed more than 130 people.
