Beginning his election campaign in Bengal for the Left-Congress-ISF alliance in Bengal Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday launched a massive broadside against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee saying each was complementary to the other insofar as the State’s contemporary politics was concerned.
Attacking Modi for trying to defile Bengal’s rich culture by inciting hatred and peddling false dreams of “Sonar Bangla” (golden Bengal) which he called a “mirage” he said the Prime Minister and his party BJP was dividing Bengalis for votes.
“Like in Assam, Tamil Nadu and elsewhere the BJP is trying to spread hatred amongst the people and divide them” in the name of caste and religion… the people of other states have learnt with experience that the BJP have only hatred and divisive politics to offer in the name of lofty dreams like Sonar Bangla that they are peddling now,” Gandhi told a rally at Goalkpokhar in North Dinajpur district of North Bengal.
The so-called Sonar Bangla was a “mirage” which the BJP was selling in every state to hide its failures at the Centre he said.
Criticising each and every step taken by the Modi Government he said “they promised you unearthing of black money through demonetization but could they do it … they failed in that … and ended up bringing hardship to common man.”
Attacking the Modi Government for “its insensitivity when thousands of people were walking back home hundreds and thousands of kms,” the former Congress president said, “those thousands of people from your area know it well how they returned home during the lockdown … instead of putting money to your pocket to lessen your hardship they were waiving tax burdens on the large corporate houses of Modiji\s choice saying they would create jobs … but did that happen … No.”
During his first rally in Bengal in this election season, Gandhi took a dig at Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and said his party would never align with the BJP and the RSS, unlike the TMC, which in the past had been an alliance partner of the saffron party-led NDA.
Hitting out at Mamata Banerjee he said that the Bengal Chief Minister’s remote control was in the hands of Narendra Modi adding they were the two sides of the same coin.
Attacking Banerjee for being part of the BJP’s alliance for many years he said “she was in the BJP’s closet for many years but did the Congress ever made any alliance with the BJP or the RSS … did the Congress compromise with an ideology that murdered its political Guru (Mahatma Gandhi) … we will prefer to die than to go with the BJP-RSS.”
Trying to distinguish differentiate between Banerjee’s fight against the BJP and the Congress’ struggle against it he said “for Mamata Banerjee it is merely a political fight … but for the Congress it is a battle of ideology on which it cannot compromise.”
Reminding the BJP’s slogan of “Congress Mukt Bharat” (Congress-less India) he said, “the slogan was coined because they know that the Congress will never surrender before the ideology of RSS.”
He attacked the TMC for introducing the culture of cut money and extortion in Bengal he said “the people of Bengal gave an opportunity to TMC. But, they failed in every respect… This is the only state where you have to pay cut money to get jobs … in Bengal there is no industry, no road, no infrastructure … nothing … now the people of Bengal have to go to other states for jobs.”