Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has ‘insulted’ migrant workers returning to the state on ‘Shramik Special’ trains. Mamata Banerjee has called those trains ‘Corona Express’ in the process insulting the migrant workers. This statement was made by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, as he tried to reach out to the vast constituency of harried migrants and their families.
Shah asserted the migrant workers will now ensure the ‘exit’ of the Banerjee government in the 2021 Assembly polls in West Bengal. He also attacked the ruling TMC supremo over the ‘industry of political violence’ being run in West Bengal.
Shah was addressing a virtual rally for Bengal from the national capital. He asserted the people of the state will reduce Banerjee to a ‘political refugee’ for opposing the new law in order to ‘appease’ a minority community. The minister was referring to the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
“UP received 1,700 trains, Bihar 1,500. I was stunned when Mamata didi called ‘Shramik Special’ trains coming to Bengal as ‘Corona Express’. You insulted the migrants, you rubbed salt into their wounds. Now this ‘Corona Express’ will lead you to your exit (from power). People will not forget this insult,” Shah asserted.
Banerjee had criticised the railways for running ‘too many’ Shramik Special trains. She said it resulted in a surge in the number of COVID-19 cases in West Bengal. She had then deprecatingly called the trains ‘Corona Express’.
Shah also lashed out at Banerjee for opposing the CAA. “Bengal is the only state in India where the culture of political violence is flourishing. The only industry that is prospering in Bengal is of making crude bombs and illegal weapons,” Shah thundered.
“Bengal is the only state where communal violence is still going on. It must stop. I assure you that BJP isn’t here to bring a revolution or only to expand its support base. It is also here to revive Bengal’s rich cultural heritage…to make it ‘sonar Bangla’ (made of gold) again,” added Shah.
The BJP, Shah said, won a staggering 303 Lok Sabha seats but he held the 18 it pocketed in West Bengal dear.
“We want this atmosphere of terror to go,” the former BJP president said. He urged people to vote the party to power in the Assembly elections next year.
Shah underscored the need for a political change in West Bengal. The minister pointed out that those who voted to dislodge the Left Front government were now saying the Communist dispensation was better than the one presided over by Banerjee.
“You gave the Communists 34 years, you gave 10 years to (Mamata) Didi. Now give a chance to (Narendra) Modiji, and you will see the change. Bihar, which was once a ‘bimaru’ (laggard) state, is on the path of development ever since the NDA government took charge. Uttar Pradesh is moving ahead in just three years,” Shah asserted.