kolkata: Trinamool Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Thursday came out all guns blazing against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP government for their extreme incompetence that led to unrest in Manipur.
While attacking PM Modi, he said when this incident took place in Manipur, he was campaigning with Union Home minister Amit Shah in poll-bound Karnataka between May 4 and 6. “This is not an isolated case. Such incidents of violence and atrocities have been happening for the past three months. The way the two women were stripped and paraded in Manipur is absolutely condemnable and cannot be tolerated in an independent nation,” Abhishek said. This incident took place on May 4 and today is July 20. In the two months and 16 days that have passed by, the culprits were not caught, he added. “This has exposed the extreme incompetence of the state and the Central government. The incident shows the reality of the ‘double-engine’ governance model that the BJP keeps boasting about,” Abhishek said.
For the past three months, the internet has been stopped. Violence continued unabated. The Central and state government cannot abdicate responsibility on this, he said.
“Such an incident has never taken place in Bengal after Independence. When Singur and Nandigram incidents took place during the CPI(M) regime, the people of Bengal took to streets. If this happened in Bengal, people would have taught them a lesson. People of Manipur are united now and India will stand by the people in Manipur,” he stated. Appealing to the PM and the Home minister to restore peace in Manipur, Abhishek said: “Those who think they can spread violence in the name of religion and community to continue their divisive politics are highly mistaken. The Prime Minister and the Home minister should immediately prioritise restoration of peace in Manipur.”
Hitting out at Union minister Anurag Thakur, he said: “In the past 11 years, Bengal did not see a single incident similar to Singur, Nandigram, or Netai massacre or the video that surfaced yesterday (in reference to Manipur). However, Thakur was rewarded with a plush post because, during the Delhi Assembly elections, he gave the call to ‘shoot the traitors’ of the country. BJP represents this politics of division and rewards those who spread hatred.”
“Anurag Thakur and BJP leaders should pay attention to what is happening in the BJP-ruled states. In Uttar Pradesh, accused are shot dead in front of the cameras despite police presence. In Uttar Pradesh, houses of common people are demolished. Can they show similar incidents in Bengal? We believe in the history of unity and development. We use bulldozers to build infrastructure, and bring development while they use bulldozers to demolish people’s lives,” Abhishek said.