All India Trinamool Congress organised protest marches across Bangla today against the rising prices of fuel and other essential commodities. Leading the protests in South Kolkata was TMYC National President Abhishek Banerjee.
After the protest march from Golpark to Hazra, he addressed the gathering. He said that if elections are held on ballot papers, BJP will lose its deposits.
Highlights of his speech:
All of you are aware that yesterday, our chief minister, Mamata Banerjee had a meeting with the Trinamool Congress MLAs wherein a multi-pronged approach to ensure better reach of the State Government’s various schemes was taken.
It is on her instructions that we are organising these protests today, against the sudden spike in the prices of petrol, diesel and cooking gas brought about by the Central Government. Despite being organised at short notice, you all have participated whole-heartedly in the protests and therefore we are thankful to all of you.
Unlike the BJP Government at the Centre, our government in the State did not come about with the help of the CRPF and the Election Commission.
Our government was elected to power with the help of the love and affection of the people of Bangla. Therefore even if the BJP Government wants, it will not succeed in toppling our government.
Our loss in the just-concluded Lok Sabha election did not come about because of loss of popularity but because of the transferring of the CPI(M) votes to the BJP.
Despite the decrease in the number of seats from 34 in 2014 to 22 in 2019, our vote percentage increased from 39 per cent to 44 per cent. Out of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in Bangla, Trinamool Congress has increased the vote percentage by 5 per cent in 41 seats.
Also, all the party offices captured by the BJP over the last few days have been captured back by us. Let me warn others, if you start doing politics using force, be prepared to go all the way.
Let me warn the BJP, you may have more than 300 MPs in Parliament but each of our 22 MPs is capable of putting up a fight with 20 of yours.
One must remember that despite the BJP, CRPF, Election Commission, Reserve Bank of India, CBI, ED and Income Tax Department on one side and the leader of our State, Mamata Banerjee alone on the other, we have managed to increase our vote percentage 44 per cent and halted the BJP’s shameless effort at bringing about religious polarisation in our State in its tracks.
The BJP has swept through Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh but has been stopped from achieving its target here.
Our fight will continue, for which we will give a renewed call at the annual July 21 (Ekushe July) rally. Mamata Banerjee’s Ekushe July rally in 1993 was for enforcing the ‘no identity card no vote’ policy, her rally in 2019 will be for bringing back voting through ballot paper in order to save democracy as we have caught the BJP’s tactics of hacking EVMs. The BJP will lose its deposits if elections are held on ballot papers.
Like so many times previously, we have once again hit the streets to protest against the burden brought on to the common man’s shoulder by increasing the prices of fuels. This is what Trinamool Congress is all about – always by the side of the people, unlike other political parties.
For every serious issue that the country is facing, like rising unemployment, farmer suicides and others, Narendra Modi has only one answer – chanting ‘Jai Shri Ram’. This is what Bharatiya Janata Party is all about.
The BJP may chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’ or ‘Jai Maa Kali’’ as much as they want, but will only go for ‘Jai Hind’, ‘Joy Bangla’ and ‘Vande Mataram’. We don’t confuse politics with religion.
My best wishes to all my Muslim brothers and sisters on the occasion of Eid tomorrow, and my best wishes are also there with all my Hindu brothers and sisters who celebrated the ‘Tirodhan Dibas’ of Baba Loknath yesterday.
On June 6, Trinamool Congress workers will organise massive protest marches on the issue of fuel price hike in all the 144 wards of Kolkata Municipal Corporation.
We won’t stop till we throw the BJP out of power. We will protest inside Parliament, outside Parliament, in blocks, cities, towns and villages.
I ask all of you to rise up against the BJP, which vandalised the statue of a person as great as Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar.
The time for resting is over. We must all gear up to fight with all our might and ensure that in 2021, the BJP is given a burial through democratic means, the BJP which is out to destroy the culture of our State.
The people of the country have also realised that there is only one leader who can take the fight to the BJP, and that leader is Mamata Banerjee.
The BJP leaders are saying that Mamata Banerjee would be sent 10 lakh postcards with ‘Jai Shri Ram’ written on them. But before they could do that, we have sent them 25 lakh WhatsApp messages containing ‘Joy Bangla’, ‘Jai Hind’ and ‘Mamata Banerjee Zindabad’.
