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December 15, 2018

The Modi Storm is over: Abhishek Banerjee

The Modi Storm is over: Abhishek Banerjee

Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee addressed a public meeting today in Panihati in North 24 Parganas district.

Salient points of his speech:

  • Congratulations to everyone who have made this public meeting possible through their hard work.There is no number two in our organisation. There is the chairperson, and everyone else are workers. It is through your wish that the Trinamool Congress under the leadership of Mamata Banerjee has been able to form the government in Bangla.I offer my pranam to the selfless workers of the organisation; the rights that they enjoy no leader enjoys. Leaders, ministers, MPs, all retire some day but a worker never retires.A party becomes powerful when it has both old and new workers. We will welcome new workers, but the value of old workers will never be overlooked.
  • I will forever remain indebted to the people of North 24 Parganas. Before starting any major project, I take the blessings of the people of this district. Today, I give the clarion call for the January 19 rally from this meeting today. A large number of people from this district go to the July 21 rally to take instructions from Mamata Banerjee.
  • The last time the Trinamool Congress had addressed a rally at Brigade Parade Ground was on January 30, 2014. Then, Mamata Banerjee had campaigned for the Lok Sabha election, for a secular government and for the furtherance of the all-round development of the people of Bangla.
  • There is a difference to the next Brigade rally on January 19 though. Then, the biggest leaders from parties across the country will address the mass of people, and strengthen the hand of Mamata Banerjee. From the stage that day, the call for BJP to leave India would be made.
  • The way we had thrown away the millstone round the neck of Bangla that the CPI(M) had become, the same way will we throw the communal BJP out of India’s political sphere. That is why we will go to the Brigade rally and take suitable instructions from her on how to go about the work.
  • The people of the country have seen the pitiable condition that has befallen those who had said with pride that they will crush all opposition under the juggernaut of the chariot.
  • The Modi Storm was successfully quelled at the recent Assembly elections held in Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. Things have come to such a pass under the BJP that there is politics about everything now – politics of cows, of temples, of religion and of communal tension.
  • Till Mamata Banerjee is there, we will not let them raise their heads. If they have the guts, let them fight democratically; we will prove to them how to fight taking the people along.
  • We had seen the state of the BJP at the recent zilla parishad elections or the Noapara Assembly election. All the garbage elements from other parties have now assembled in the BJP. Let them fight on the basis of development – we will then show them how to fight an election. The cow which had blessed them with its milk in 2014 has now blackened their face with its dung.
  • Their politics consists of destroying the Hindu-Muslim unity, creating communal tensions and just big talk.
  • 80% people of the country are in the BPL (below poverty line) category. Yet, without paying any heed to their plight, the BJP has built a statue by spending Rs 3,000 crore. If Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel was alive today, he would have been ashamed at this. He is our inspiration, our moral compass.
  • My religion has taught me to be worshipful towards one’s own religion and respectful towards others’. It does not tread the path of ‘crush and destroy’. I do Suryanamaskar after getting up in the morning and recite the Gayatri Mantra after taking bath. I believe in the religion of Swami Vivekananda, not in those of Yogi Adityanath, Modi or Amit Shah.
  • Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has kept her promises. And what did the prime minister promise? ‘Achhe din aane wala hain.’ When it comes to keeping promises, the prime minister has done nothing. Our leader had promised that if she came to power, she would return the land forcibly taken from farmers to them. We had said we will bring peace back to Jangalmahal. We have also revived tourism in Darjeeling, provided glitch-free services in villages and built metalled roads across the State.
  • What are the big differences between Mamata Banerjee and Narendra Modi? While our leader has waived off taxes on agricultural land for the sake of poor farmers, Narendra Modi has waived off the paying back of loans by millionaires to the tune of Rs 3 lakh crore.
  • No CPI(M) or Congress chief minister of Bangla has visited regions across the State to ensure BDOs, IAS officers and police OCs work towards all-round development. Only Mamata Banerjee has done so.
  • While our offices have remained the same the way they were in 2010, the BJP has built a seven-star party office in the heart of Delhi. Our party is a party of and for the poor, a party for the Maa-Mati-Manush.
  • While we have never seen PM Modi go around serving tea from kettles, Mamata Banerjee has continued living in a thatched-roof house, the same one she has always lived in, and ensured development across the length and breadth of her State. While we are constructive, they are destructive.
  • They have brought an AC bus from somewhere and are calling it a chariot, and preaching from that. My question Dilip Ghosh is, what kind of a chariot is this? We know of the chariots of Jagannath, Balaram and Subhadra, of Sri Krishna. We have seen the chariot rides of Ramakrishna Paramhansa, of Sri Chaitanya. What kind of a chariot is this, on which board black sheep in human garb? A holy chariot aboard which one can indulge in fun, can bathe and can do toilet? This is indeed laughable. These people want to divide the country on communal lines.
  • Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose had said, “Give me blood and I will give you freedom”, and Dilip Ghosh and company say, “Give me blood and I will give you a blood-soaked Bangla.” On the other hand, Mamata Banerjee says, “Hey the people of my State, in the coming Lok Sabha election give me 42 out of the 42 seats and I will give you a new India.”
  • We have to stay steady in our paths. In the near future will arise a new India, a secular India, a communally peaceful India, and an India rich in all respects.
  • Yesterday, the union Information and Broadcasting Minister had said in Parliament that, in the last almost five years, their government had spent Rs 5,300 crore in advertisements. This government should be ashamed of itself.
  • We will even give our blood to preserve the communal harmony of Bangla. The people of this State will never bow their heads to people like you. They have never done such a thing, and will never do. There is nothing new to be said about the leading role that Bangla had taken in the freedom movement.
  • Neither are we the BJP nor are we the Congress. We take our people along the path of love and peace. And on January 19 at the Brigade Parade Ground, led by Mamata Banerjee, we will take the historic pledge to build a new India. This is what you all have to preach in every booth and unite people from all layers of society.
  • I had remarked to the candidate of Dumurjola at the Student-Youth Festival last February that the BJP will be removed from power in 2019. Now we see that we have not had to wait till 2019 – in 2018 itself the party has bitten the dust.
  • The people will support the Trinamool Congress with all their might. We will have to continue our fight against the BJP in the coming days. My best wishes for all.