Conspiring to dismantle Bengal govt says Mamata Banerjee on Amit Shah statement

KOLKATA: West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday responded to Union home minister Amit Shah’s stinging attacks on the state’s ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC), alleging that Shah was conspiring to pull down the government.

“On April 14, the Union home minister came to Bengal to address his party’s meeting. He has the freedom to do that. What he says in public is his prerogative. But having sworn to protect the Constitution, the home minister of India cannot say that if his party wins 35 Lok Sabha seats in Bengal the state government will collapse. This means a home minister is conspiring to dismantle a democratically elected government,” Banerjee said at the state secretariat on Monday, her first comment to Amit Shah’s statements on Friday.

“How can a home minister have so much audacity that instead of protecting the nation, the democracy and the federal structure he talks of dismantling an elected government? Which law permits him to do that? Does it mean he will make his own law? Does it mean the Constitution is being replaced?,” she said.

Shah, who was in the state last week to kick off the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) campaign for the 2024 general elections, also prophesied that the next chief minister in West Bengal will be from the BJP.

The senior BJP leader credited the party workers for the BJP becoming the principal opposition party in West Bengal in the 2021 assembly elections.

“Complete what began in 2021 in 2024. Give BJP more than 35 seats and make Narendra Modi the Prime Minister once again. The only way to end the rule of lawlessness by Mamata Banerjee and her nephew is to usher in a BJP government.”

Banerjee responded to Shah on Monday.

She said: “They are replacing the judiciary, replacing the Constitution, replacing history. Law and order are being replaced by killers. He (Shah) has no right to continue as Union home minister after making these statements. We demand his resignation in a democratic manner.”

Banerjee also highlighted former Jammu and Kashmir governor Satya Pal Malik’s sensational claims in a recent interview.

Malik, who was governor of J&K in 2018-19, claimed Modi asked him to keep quiet on the Pulwama attack and the home ministry allegedly rejected a proposal to fly down the jawans instead of having them travel by road. Malik didn’t provide any material evidence to prove his allegations.

“What Satyapal Ji said...There was intelligence failure. At that time (2019) also, we raised this point. The truth will emerge one day. We want an investigation,” she said.

“We salute our jawans (soldiers). We love our motherland. They sacrificed their lives for the motherland. They are devoted to our country. But for the polarization and to create some fake nationalism….” Banerjee said without completing the sentence.

“We respect our nationalism because Bengal is where nationalism was born,” she added.