Mamata Banerjee said: “Humanity is for everyone, be it Sikh, Jain, Muslim or Christian.”
Calcutta:
Bengal’s Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee confronted the BJP today on its pre-election promise to turn Bengal into Gujarat and sought the help of the people to prevent such an event. “Bengal thrives on excellence and merit. We cannot allow it to become Gujarat,” said the head of Trinamool, who has repeatedly described the BJP as “outsiders”, as quoted by the ANI news agency.
“The soil of Bengal is the source of life. We have to protect this soil. We have to take pride in this. There is no one who can come from outside and say that this place will become Gujarat,” Ms Banerjee said. as the ANI news agency says.
He also stressed that no religious divisions will be allowed in the state. “Our message is that we are for everyone … Humanity is for everyone, be it Sikh, Jain, Muslim or Christian. We do not allow any division between them,” he said at a function in Kolkata.
The Chief Minister’s retaliation on Gujarat comes days after Union Interior Minister Amit Shah’s attack on his government regarding the state’s economy and industry during his visit last week.
Citing data from the 1950s and 1960s, Shah said that industry in the state has been regularly downsizing. “After independence, Bengal would contribute a third of GDP. It has fallen since then,” Shah had said.
“Bengal’s contribution to industrial production immediately after independence was 30%, now it is 3.5%. In 1960, Bengal was one of the richest states in the country. In the 1950s, Bengal produced a 70% pharmaceuticals. Now it is around 7 percent. Bengal’s jute industries that employed many are closed, “he said, adding:” Our sankalp is to do Bengali Shonar Bangla once again. “
The Chief Minister responded by saying that Shah owed him a gift, as his government’s data on Bengal’s social and economic parameters proved him wrong.
“Mr. Amit Shah now owes me a gift. I want to eat Gujarati food like dhokla and something else that Dinesh Trivedi brings me often. I don’t remember his name at the moment,” Banerjee said.
The bitter debate over Bengal against outsiders has been going on since the territorial war of the ruling Trinamool Congress with the BJP began.
Shah has set his sights on forming the next government in the state and has asserted that his party is on the right track after last year’s Lok Sabha elections, where the BJP won 18 out of 42 state seats.
During his visit to the state last weekend, Shah visited Visva Bharati University, founded in 1921 by Rabindranath Tagore, and had lunch at the home of a Baul singer.
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