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TMC, Congress competing over appeasement politics: Modi in Bengal
Modi said that chief minister Mamata Banerjee-led government in Bengal helps Bangladeshi infiltrators to settle in the state which allows them to usurp the land and property belonging to the Indians
Kolkata: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is in West Bengal for the election campaign for the Bharatiya Janata Party, hit out at the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the Congress party saying that there is a competition going on between the Congress and the TMC over appeasement politics and for the sake of appeasement, they could go to any level and can reverse every decision taken in the national interest.
He alleged that chief minister Mamata Banerjee-led government in Bengal helps Bangladeshi infiltrators to settle in the state which allows them to usurp the land and property belonging to the Indians.
Addressing an election rally in Malda, one of the three Muslim-dominated districts in West Bengal, Modi said, “The TMC and Congress may show that they have a strained relation, but they think on the same lines. What keeps them together is appeasement and for this, they may go to any extent. For appeasement, they want to cancel the decisions taken to promote national security. The INDIA alliance wants to restore Article 370 in Kashmir. TMC and Congress are saying that if they come to power they will do away with CAA [Citizenship (Amendment) Act],” he added.
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Four constituencies in the Muslim-dominated and bordering districts of Malda and Murshidabad – Malda South, Malda North, Murshidabad and Jangipur – will be going into polls on May 7 in the third phase.
Banerjee hit back saying that the Left, Congress and BJP were fighting against the TMC.“The Left and the Congress are the two eyes of the BJP. Together these three parties are fighting against the TMC in West Bengal,” she said.
Modi further attacked the TMC over the recent order of the Calcutta high court in which the appointment of 25,753 people, empanelled in 2016 for teaching and non-teaching jobs at secondary and higher secondary schools in West Bengal, were scrapped.
“The school recruitment scam is so huge that 26,000 families have lost their livelihoods. The poor people who took loans and arranged money to give to the TMC leaders are now burdened with the debt. The TMC has closed down all doors for the youths of Bengal,” Modi said.
Slamming Congress over the inheritance tax issue, Modi said Congress is talking about distributing people’s property among its vote bank.
“Congress is planning to introduce an inheritance tax of 55% on your property after your death. Your children won’t be able to inherit your life’s savings. The Congress government will usurp more than half of the property. This will go to the Congress vote bank.”
The Congress has been coming under attack from the BJP’s top brass after comments made by Indian Overseas Congress president Sam Pitroda sparked off a political storm over inheritance tax amid the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.
Also Read: Inheritance tax in the eye of political storm amid Lok Sabha elections
Further attacking Congress, Modi said they are also trying to infringe upon the reservations of the Scheduled Caste (SC), the Schedules Tribe (ST) and the Other Backward Classes (OBC).
“In Congress-ruled Karnataka, Muslims have been included in the OBC reservation. The Constitution allows reservation of SC, ST and OBC but the Congress wants to do it on the basis of religion. They want to implement the Karnataka model across the country,” Modi said.
Congress hit back saying that the Prime Minister was afraid of the INDIA alliance and the Congress and is hence trying to “communally divide the people amid the elections”.
“The Prime Minister knows very well that the BJP would lose this time. He is afraid of the Congress and INDIA alliance. If we take the last 10 years, the NDA [National Democratic Alliance] government has failed on all parameters. Hence when elections are going on, the Prime Minister is making such statements to mislead the people and divide them communally,” said Congress leader Soumya Aich Roy.
