Fight BJP's lies from grassroots level

Nadia: Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee urged her party workers to counter lies and canard spread by the BJP throughout the state at the grassroots level.

Addressing a gathering of her party workers at Krishnanagar Government College ground on Wednesday afternoon, she said: "After winning the Lok Sabha election, BJP has polarised society into Hindus and Muslims and is inciting one against the other. It is a pathetic condition. Hatred is on the rise and BJP leaders and workers are circulating lies and canards throughout the state. We will have to counter them." She urged Rajib Banerjee who is the Observer for Nadia district to play her CD before the booth-level party workers so that they can counter the lies which are being spread by the BJP. "The booth-level workers who are the real assets of the TMC should know about the various projects taken up by the state government so that they can go to the people and counter the statements made by the BJP leaders," she said and added: "Booth-level workers should be trained properly by the senior leaders."

Lashing out at the BJP for spreading Hindu fundamentalism, she maintained: "Some religious fanatics wearing headbands are spreading lies about Hinduism. Whom should we follow? Should we follow the message of universal tolerance and acceptance as preached by Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda or the narrow Hinduism spread by the BJP?" She further maintained: "I am a Hindu and I observe all the rituals of Hinduism. At the same time, I observe festivals of the Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhists and the Christians. Am I not a Hindu? Do I have to get a certificate from BJP to establish my Hinduism," she remarked.

Accusing the saffron party of being doublespeak, Banerjee said BJP had earlier said "National Population Register (NPR) is the first step towards National Register of Citizens (NRC) and now the party leaders have said that NRC will not be implemented now. The only business of the party is to confuse people."

Banerjee further said as the BJP is trying to push many things in Parliament quietly, she has to go through the Bills that are circulated among the MPs very seriously. "Now, the Bills are circulated at midnight and generally the date for discussing them is fixed the next morning so that one has to go through the Bills very seriously. I keep in touch with the MPs and it was Trinamool Congress that raised voice against the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAA) on the floor of the House.

Banerjee asked her party workers to carefully study the various schemes taken up by the state government so that they can make people aware of them. "Our government has taken up several schemes for the welfare of people, but they should be made aware of them. It becomes your responsibility to go to the masses and make them aware about the projects."