In an apparent reference to Home Minister Amit Shah’s admission that the BJP’s’ ‘goli maro’ rhetoric might have worked against the party’s interest in Delhi elections, Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday said the saffron leadership should have kept this in mind while they were spreading hate campaign before the elections.
“Where senior leaders gave hate speech and induce the youth to take up arms it is but natural that they will resort to taking up guns in their hands. They (BJP) should have thought about it before the elections,” she said asking “what will the workers do if you induce them to shoot at your opponents.” She made the statement while giving speech inside the State Assembly.
Referring to the incidents of attack on the Opposition in the BJP-ruled States Banerjee said, “it is time to change their rhetoric.” Alleging that the Bengal BJP leaders were still making violent speeches Banerjee said “a few leaders that you (BJP) have sent in Bengal are still not prepared to mend their ways. They are still spreading hatred … But I warn them this will not help them in Bengal.”
Alleging that the BJP and RSS were actively converting the Aadi Vasis (tribal people) into Hinduism Banerjee said “such practices were never seen in Bengal earlier.
The BJP and RSS are converting the Aadi Vasis in the garb of organising mass marriages. They should refrain from doing so,” warning once again that National Register for Citizens will not be invoked in Bengal.
“There will be no NRC in Bengal,” Banerjee said adding she would write to the Chief Ministers of all the non-BJP states to unite against NRC.
While Railway Minister Piyush Goyal had on Thursday attacked the State Government for refusing to implement the central schemes so as to benefit the common people Banerjee targeted her Uttar Pradesh counterpart Yogi Adityanath’s government alleging it had failed to give protection to the women.
“In Bengal, we have laws to protect women. Police act immediately when there is crime against women but look at UP where victims are burnt alive and their families are attacked,” she said.
Banerjee also rued that she was not invited to the inaugural ceremony of the Kolkata East-West Metro corridor though she had worked very hard as the Railway Minister to bring the project to Kolkata.
Meanwhile, the Bengal BJP line seemed to be divided over the use of hate speeches during the elections.
The debate over the future strategy came up after the BJP suffered a humiliating defeat in Delhi at the hands of the Aam Aadmi Party which won the polls for the third consecutive time on the plank of good governance.
The saffron party won only 8 seats while the AAP bagged 62 in the 70-member House.
While a section of the leaders including Chandra Bose the grand nephew of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose said that “the party should contest elections on the issue of good governance” rather than strong rhetoric based on hatred those backing state president Dilip Ghosh opposed the view.
Supporting party MP Swapan Dasgupta’s views he tweeted “Agree with Swapan Dasgupta that Bengal (BJP) must have a CM face who could match up to the stature of Mamata Banerjee. In public life-nothing is private! The BJP must have a Bengal Centric strategy for WB.”
Dasgupta had earlier said that ideological issues must be supplemented by governance agenda. He also spoke in favour of a Chief Ministerial face to counter the stature of Mamata Banerjee.
However State BJP president Dilip Ghosh said the BJP had its own way of functioning. “That is not the way the BJP works” he said while another state level leader said “the strategy that had given us 18 out of 42 seats should be pursued because Bengal is different from Delhi. You will have to counter TMC’s aggressive strategy by a matching aggression.”