KOLKATA: BJP president J P Nadda Saturday launched the party’s ‘Parivartan Yatra’ from Nabadwip in West Bengal’s Nadia district, and asserted the people have decided to bid farewell to the Mamata Banerjee government in the assembly elections.
He also accused the TMC government of politicising the administration and criminalising the police.
Claiming that the TMC’s slogan of “Maa, Mati, Manush” (mother, land and people) has been reduced to “dictatorship, tolabaji (extortion) and (Muslim) appeasement,” Nadda said the TMC dispensation has betrayed the trust people had reposed in it.
He alleged only the ruling TMC leaders have benefited under Mamata Banerjee and even funds meant for relief in the aftermath of cyclone Amphan were misappropriated by thenm.
Nadda also raked up the issue of her anger over slogans of ‘Jai Shri Ram’, which he linked to the country’s culture.
“Why does she hate ‘Jai Shri Ram’ slogan so much? Is it wrong to connect with the culture of one’s own country?
They (the TMC) want to negate the country’s culture for the sake of vote-bank politics,” he said.
Banerjee had declined to speak at the event to celebrate Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s birth anniversary where “Jai Shri Ram” slogans were raised in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Talking about the insider-outsider debate started by Banerjee in the run up to the assembly elections likely in April-May, the BJP chief said the state leadership of his party will protect the culture of West Bengal and steer it to progress.
“The Mamata Banerjee government has politicised the administration, criminalised the police and institutionalised corruption,” he alleged.
He later flagged off an improvised ‘Rath’ as part of the BJP’s ‘Parivartan Yatra’ to bring about a change in West Bengal from Nabadwip, the birthplace of 15th century saint Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.
He said Union Home Minister Amit Shah will inaugurate two of the other four such ‘Rath Yatra’ slated later this month.