April 28, 2014
Mamata Banerjee speaks this Monday
West Bengal Chief Minister Ms. Mamata Banerjee today responded to the baseless allegations and inflammatory comments made by Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi at a public rally on April 27. She slammed the Gujarat Chief Minister for trying to divide Bengalis and non Bengalis.
She said, “Modi is a devil. He has already presided over riots in his own State and has turned his attention towards Bengal now. He wanted to separate Darjeeling. Now he wants to divide the Hindus and Muslims in the State. My Bihari and Marwari friends have protested against his statement. People will not give him a single vote.”
She also said, “Everyone is our brother and sister, whether they belong to Gujarat or Bihar. We do not discriminate between people based on whether they speak Gujarati, Bihari or Tamil. We don't do casteism and dirty politics.”
Accusing the Gujarat CM of being ignorant of history, Ms. Banerjee added, “Bangla is the fifth most widely spoken language in the world. Elsewhere in India, people who speak in Bangla are branded Bangladeshis. This is discrimination. Bengal was united at one point of time in history. We love and respect our neighbours. The Bangladeshis who migrated to India followed the 1971 Indira-Mujib agreement. You cannot throw out legal immigrants from this country.”
West Bengal Chief Minister added that the person being projected as the next PM is divisive and if he actually becomes the PM, the nation will plunge into darkness.
Countering the claims of development in Gujarat, she said that Bengal is doing better than the western State and that growth has actually declined in Gujarat under Mr Modi. “The metric for true development is welfare of the poor. In 100-Days work scheme, we spent Rs 5500 crore for employment generation. Gujarat spent only Rs 500 crore. Revenue earning in Bengal has increased by 31% while in Gujarat it has grown by 15% only.”
“Infant mortality rate in Bengal is 31 out of 1000 births. For Gujarat it is 42. When we took over two and a half years ago, 3 crore mandays were lost in Bengal. The figure is nil now. Bank lending to MSME, which is a good reflection of the health of the economy, grew by 106% in Bengal while the growth in this parameter in Gujarat was only 34%. We have provided toilets in 92% schools in Bengal,” she added.
“We do not need gyan on development from the architects from riots. He has no right to be in politics” the West Bengal Chief Minister added.
