Amit Shah's speech full of rhetoric without any substance, says TMC

Kolkata: Hours after Union Home minister Amit Shah's virtual 'Jan Samvad Rally' addressing the voters in Bengal, Trinamool Congress leaders lashed out at the former BJP president, saying Shah's speech was all of rhetoric and no substance, marked with lies at a time when the Bengal government is busy fighting the COVID-19 pandemic and the Amphan aftermath.

Shah severely criticised the state government for its failure to run the administration and giving indulgence to the Syndicate Raj, its communal bias and depriving people of getting the benefits of Central schemes like Ayush. He urged the people to help BJP to restore its past culture and heritage and ensure the exit of Trinamool Congress.

Coming down heavily, Trinamool Youth Congress president Abhishek Banerjee said: "His speech was full of rhetoric without any substance." He tweeted: "As usual the speech of Amit Shah ji was full of rhetoric and no substance. Nonetheless, since he has talked about his dream of seeing EXIT of TMC, I would like to ask him one more time 'When are the Chinese Exiting our territory'."

Criticising Shah for his "tendency to speak lies" Amit Mitra, the state Finance minister, said: "He has not only spoken lies but represents a government that has imitated the scheme of Mamata Banerjee in giving medical relief to the people."

Demolishing the allegations made by Shah one after the other, Mitra said the Centre has given Rs 1,000 crore as Cyclone Amphan relief against the estimated cost of damage to the tune of Rs 1 lakh crore. The Centre has not paid the state government's dues worth Rs 53,000 crore till date. "Interestingly, Shah is silent on these issues. If he was honest, he should have thrown some light on these important matters."

Calling the BJP led Centre "a master imitator", Mitra said under the Swastha Sathi project which was introduced by Mamata Banerjee on February 17, 2016, 1.5 crore families have been benefitted. The families get Rs 5 lakh for receiving treatment in 1,518 network hospitals. "Bengal is the only state in the country where treatment in state-run hospitals is totally free," he remarked.

Ayush was introduced much later by the Centre where the latter pays 60 per cent of the money while the state government pays the remaining 40 per cent to build infrastructure and procurement of medicines.

He said "a child will laugh" at Shah's tall claims that the country has made tremendous progress economically. "The economic condition of the country has nosedived. Due to note ban and introduction of GST without proper preparedness, nearly two crore people lost their jobs." At present, the unemployment rate in Haryana is 35 per cent while those in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka are 27, 25 and 20 per cent respectively. In Bengal it is 17 per cent because of proper planning, he said adding that in the last quarter of 2019-20 financial year, the GDP had dropped to 3.1 per cent, the lowest in the past 11 years from 5.2 per cent in the first quarter of the same fiscal.

Derek O'Brien said it was Mamata Banerjee who had first written to the Chief Ministers of 18 states requesting them to look after the migrant workers from Bengal. "BJP sat on the issue and later sent trains full of migrant workers who did not have food or even water during the journey," he said.