Expiry Babu: Mamata's fierce counter to PM's 'speedbreaker' dig
Dinhata: Coming down heavily on Prime Minister Narendra Modi for "speaking lies to create confusion among people", Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee rejected his allegations against her of being a 'speed breaker' in the path of Bengal's development.
The Chief Minister gave a point-by-point rebuttal of charges levelled by Modi and nailed the "lies" spoken about the performance of her government.
Addressing a public meeting here on Wednesday afternoon, Banerjee said Modi does not know about Bengal and the development that has taken place in the past seven years and that is why he is resorting to lies.
Challenging the Prime Minister to participate in a debate by either holding a public meeting or through a television channel, she said: "Modi does not answer questions and those who raise them are branded as anti-nationals. What kind of arrogance is this?"
Describing Modi as "Expiry Babu" and "Expiry PM", Banerjee questioned his government's feats at the Centre. "You first answer what has your government done in five years." She added that as Prime Minister, Modi should know that in 100 days of work, Bengal ranks first in the country. The state has got "Krishi Karman" award five times in a row which is given by the Centre. In the construction of rural roads, Bengal ranks first in the country. Banerjee added that the income of farmers in the state has increased three times under her rule whereas 12,000 farmers have committed suicide during Modi rule in the country.
The Chief Minister said her government has implemented several welfare schemes for the people of the state, like 'Kanyashree' for girls, 'Yuvashree' for the youths.
"It is most unfortunate that in election meetings, Modi is talking about the air strikes, flouting ECI instructions. Someone is calling the Indian Army 'Modi Army'. It is shocking. Army jawans sacrifice their lives for the country and Modi's armymen engineer communal riots."
The Chief Minister also maintained: "I am a nationalist and you are a Fascist. I am not going to take lessons on nationalism from you."
Banerjee said the state government did not accept "Ayushman Bharat" as the state government had to pay 40 percent of the Centre's share. She said her government will introduce a scheme that will benefit 7.5 crore people in the state apart from "Swastha Sathi".
Rejecting Modi's claim of doing everything for the welfare of tea garden workers, she said: "You had promised to reopen seven closed tea gardens, but you have not done anything."
Banerjee also cautioned people against the Citizenship Amendment Bill as it will "very cleverly delete the SCs, STs and Muslims from the list." The Chief Minister maintained that though Modi has assured the Gorkhas in Darjeeling and other places in the state that they have nothing to worry about the NRC, she said that there are several elements in it for the Gorkhas to fear. "Go to Assam to see how many people have died and how many families have been devastated because of NRC," she said.
Binay Tamang, chairman of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA), demanded that Modi move an Ordinance which states that Gorkhas residing all over the country will not be affected by the NRC. On Wednesday, the Prime Minister abstained from making any comments on the issues pertaining to the Gorkhas including Gorkhaland and inclusion of 11 Gorkha sub-communities in the Scheduled Tribe list.
The Chief Minister highlighted that the candidate from Cooch Bihar has 11 criminal cases against him and has still got a ticket. Reading out a letter from the CBI that stated that the candidate was involved in child-trafficking and illegal arms cases, Banerjee said: "BJP is giving shelter to criminals."
