Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today spoke to reporters at Nabanna, during the course of which she came down strongly against the incident at Jamia Millia Islamia. She said that India’s ruling party does nothing other than indulging in such crimes.
There has been no development. The party has done nothing for the welfare of farmers, workers, the unemployed, students and women. Its leaders only know how to divide the country.
She said that she is also a Hindu. But she and her party leaders know that the Hindu religion is all-welcoming, and are followers of people with progressive outlook like Gandhi ji, Netaji and Swami Vivekananda.
Netaji had coined the slogan ‘Jai Hind’. In his army was a patriot like General Shahnawaz Khan. We remember Bhagat Singh with reverence. There has always been a connection between the far-flung places and regions in the country, like between Punjab and Bengal. This is the essence of what our country stands for.
She said that she goes to Tamil Nadu to hear ‘Vanakkam’ (Tamil for ‘hello’). In Bihar and UP, some people speak in Hindi and some in Bhojpuri.
The BJP indulges just in big talk. Whoever decides to speak out, they term the person a ‘terrorist’. They try to prove that only they are nationalists, but the reality is that they are the biggest opportunists.
The BJP has done no good for India and its citizens. The party does not believe in the democratic philosophy of ‘of the people, by the people, for the people’. It is helping in the spreading of fake news and views, and through it, in the dividing of the country, taking a path neither that of Gandhi ji nor Netaji nor Babasaheb Ambedkar nor Maulana Abul Kalam Azad nor Swami Vivekananda nor Rabindranath Tagore.
Talking of the BJP’s violent politics, she said that she is not at all happy at the way the country is being run. Quoting the famous lines of a poem, ‘Dhonodhanye pushpe bhora … Sokol desher shera shey je amar jonmobhumi’, she wondered aloud why should her ‘jonmobhoomi’ or ‘birthplace’ be turned into a ‘boddhobhoomi’ or ‘prison’ and a ‘mrityubhoomi’ of ‘land of death’?
Continuing her strong opposition, she said that the BJP is intent on dividing the people and stirring up trouble and for doing this, she reminded everyone, during every election, the party’s leaders have used the governmental machinery. The BJP stands for rioters, robbers and swindlers – this is their primary identity.
Continuing her criticism, she said that people of her party, unlike the BJP’s, don’t go to programmes carrying guns and sticks.
Therefore, she said, that Trinamool need not learn politics from them. Bengal has a glorious history of fighting for independence, a history that has taught the State and its people the value of tolerance.
The Delhi election is a pointer to the future route of the country, she said, adding, let us see what happens. Mamata Banerjee said she fails to understand why the BJP, instead of putting its faith in the hands of the common people, puts it in the hands of its destructive guerrilla force.
About the Union Budget, she said that it is a big zero. There is no mention of development, only of political views, of hate-filled views. There is vandalism going on, she said; else, how can a holder of a constitutional post make such comments? Why are the BJP leaders so afraid of protests? Even the Supreme Court has asked for protests to be peaceful. Through its acts, the BJP is creating an atmosphere of fear.
