May 11, 2019
EC must check all vehicles for cash, including ministers’ cars: Mamata Banerjee at Hasnabad
Trinamool Chairperson addressed a public meeting at Hasnabad today in North 24 Parganas district. Hasnabad is in the Basirhat Lok Sabha constituency. Pointing out that BJP candidates were being apprehended with cash in their vehicles, she urged the Election Commission to check all vehicles so that votes are not bought by anyone.
Highlights of her speech:
People of Hasnabad and adjoining areas, please be careful about outsiders. They are RSS people out to offer you money for your vote. Keep a watch on the border. BJP will try all sorts of things to get votes, including offering money. They even travel in Z and Y category security and then carry funds in their vehicles.
I request the Election Commission. Please check my car, my helicopter. But also check the prime minister’s car and helicopter. He cannot be exempted. They are bringing in money in various ways. Please watch out so that not a single rupee comes in, not a single outsider comes in so that proper democracy is maintained.
This is not a panchayat or Assembly election. This is an election for forming govt at the Centre. But what has Modi govt done in last five years. He comes only during vote but does not say what he has done. He gives interviews on TV channels but evades answers. I challenge him to a debate on TV.
Why is he coming so often to Bangla? He wants to create division among the people; he is coming with loads of money to distribute to the people. Don’t fall for the trap.
What has the Modi govt done? Notebandi and other policies have robbed hundreds and thousands of people of their jobs. Many have lost their businesses and farmers have committed suicide.
In Assam, names of 22 lakh Bengali Hindus have been removed from the NRC. More like this will happen. People from one state working in another are being sent back, being persecuted, and people have started living in fear.
He comes and says he has given crores of rupees to the state. He is not giving it from his own pockets. They take away a lot of revenue from the States in the form of taxes. They have reduced their share of funds for central schemes. Funds for many schemes have been stopped altogether.
We are not afraid of him. Instead, he and his signboard partner have started feeling afraid, for they are realising that their departure time has come.
He comes and says Mamata Banerjee is not allowing Durga Puja. Don’t you celebrate Durga Puja, Saraswati Puja and festivals of all religions here? He does not know anything about Bangla. Has he seen the Sunderbans, has he seen the villages?
And then he says I will slap him. He doesn’t know the land, nor does he know the language. I had said a democratic slap, meaning votes of the people.
