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Mamata Banerjee insults Bengal’s culture: J P Nadda; BJP launches two rathyatras
“The culture once nurtured by icons such as Rabindranath Tagore, Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay and Shyama Prasad Mookerjee can be revived only after you (Banerjee) are ousted,” Nadda said at a rally at Lalgarh.
Bharatiya Janata Party president J P Nadda on Tuesday asserted that the rich culture of West Bengal is under threat in chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s rule, and said she should atone for the “misrule and misgovernance” of her regime.
Nadda, who flagged off the second and third phases of the Parivartan Yatra from Tarapith in Birbhum district and Lalgarh in Jhargram district, slammed the Trinamool Congress for dividing communities by branding people as “insiders and outsiders”. “The culture once nurtured by icons such as Rabindranath Tagore, Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay and Shyama Prasad Mookerjee can be revived only after you (Banerjee) are ousted,” Nadda said at a rally at Lalgarh.
The BJP has launched three rathyatras since February 6.
The roadshows will cover the 294 assembly constituencies in the state, of which the BJP targets to win at least 200 in the polls due in April-May.
“The Trinamool Congress is pitting people against one another by branding them as insiders and outsiders,” Nadda said.
Sharpening the poll rhetoric at his rallies in Birbhum and Jhargram, Nadda accused Banerjee of indulging in appeasement politics. “She stops processions during Saraswati Puja and Durga Puja but allows the same during Muharram. Curfew is ordered in Bengal when foundation stone of the Ram Mandir is laid. This is appeasement,” Nadda said in Jhargram.
Nadda alleged that the crime rate in West Bengal was higher than other states. “Rising crime, theft of calamity relief fund sent by the Centre, corruption et al prove that Mamata Banerjee has insulted the culture of Bengal. The Trinamool Congress (TMC) is the mother of corruption and you are the party’s leader. Come to your senses and prepare for atonement,” the BJP chief said.
While the TMC did not react to Nadda’s comment, Banerjee on Tuesday likened herself to a Royal Bengal Tiger, saying that she is not a weak person who can be intimidated by the BJP.
Addressing a rally in Murshidabad, the CM said, “There is no reason to think I am weak, I am not a person to be afraid of anything. I am a strong person and will keep my head high as long as I live and till then I will live like a Royal Bengal Tiger.”
Accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of wrongly claiming at a BJP meeting in Haldia on Sunday that government employees in West Bengal do not get salaries properly, she alleged that it is the Centre which is selling off BSNL, SAIL and privatising the Railways and insurance companies.
Raking up the outsider issue, the TMC supremo said that the BJP is a party of Gujarat and Delhi, which is bringing in National Register of Citizens (NRC) and National Population Register (NPR).
“People from Gujarat will not rule Bengal, the Trinamool Congress will rule Bengal,” Banerjee said at the rally.
