'Speak on actual issues, ...instead of having fake appeasement meals'

Kolkata: Dubbing Union Home minister Amit Shah's lunch at a tribal family in Bankura on Thursday as 'a mere drama', Trinamool Congress leaders said it would not have any impact on the political scenario in Bengal.

Reacting sharply Abhishek Banerjee, president of Trinamool Youth Congress and party's MP tweeted: "Just a year, atrocities against STs quintupled in BJP-led UP & brutal rape of a Dalit girl in Hathras is still fresh in our minds. Rather than having fake appeasement meals @AmitShah Ji why don't you speak up on actual issues that matter to the community. #BanglaBirodhiAmitShah."

Veteran Trinamool leader and party's MP Saugata Roy has also opined that the saffron-leader's act was a futile exercise. "Capturing power in Bengal is Amit Shah's day dream. He is trying to project it everywhere. It will remain a distant dream as the people in Bengal are with Mamata Banerjee," he added.

Roy maintained that Shah should look after his own portfolio properly. "He should look after his own portfolio and without doing that what he has started in the name of political campaign in Bengal. Shah should not be taken seriously," he added.

Firhad Hakim, senior TMC leader said Shah's lunch was a cover-up for the atrocities inflicted upon dalit women in Utter Pradesh. "People of Bengal are fed up with this drama. On one hand Shah will have lunch with a tribal family in Bengal and on the other his associates will carry out mass rape and set the houses of dalits on fire in UP. Such double standards should be condemned," the leader added.

Lambasting Shah's populist stunt, Hakim said the former must remember that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has already set up a welfare board and university for the Matuas much before the saffron leader's eating affair.

Ironically, Bibhisan Hansda, who had treated Shah over lunch, said he could not talk to the minister to seek help for his daughter's treatment. "My daughter Rachana studies in class XII and is suffering from diabetes.

She has to take insulin. I thought of requesting Shah to bear the expenditure of the costly medicine. But, I did not get any chance to talk to him," said the anguished father.