Amid the ongoing dogfight for the Bengal ‘masnad’ (throne) there was a small side-splitting relief with Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday demanding a “Gujarati treat with Dhokhla” for rectifying his alleged misconceptions on Bengal.
“Amit Shah ji owes me a treat. I love Gujarati food, particularly Dhokla,” she said, before calling upon the Home Minister to prove her claims on the State’s development list wrong. “Prove me wrong or treat me with Dhokla,” she said amid a gentle laughter.
Her immediate reference of the veiled attack on the Home Minister was his statement citing how Bengal under Banerjee had turned into a laggard State. Shah on Sunday raised a whole lot of issues --- from industrial recession to plummeting law and order sitation --- after his grand road show at Bolpur.
Issuing point-by-point rebuttal of what Shah said against her dispensation, Banerjee quoted from the NCRB data to how violence including political killings come down during her 10-year rule.
Slamming Shah for a “deliberate attempt to malign Bengal” she said “When the country’s Home Minister says something, it should be backed by data, facts and figures. Bengal is ahead of other states on many development indices. But Amit Shah ji deliberately tried to depict a gloomy and dismal picture of the state…” Banerjee told t he media reminding how Kolkata had twice won the “safest city” appellation. Apart from being termed as the first boy in construction of rural roads, 100-days works, implementation of sanitation projects NCRB data showed how crimes particularly those against women had decreased in Bengal she said adding “before pointing fingers at others, BJP leaders should speak up against the Hathras rape-murder incident in Uttar Pradesh.”
Coming back with a refutation of what Banerjee said the BJP leadership maintained, the Chief Minister dwelt on everything save the issues raised by Shah. MP Swapan Dasgupta said that the Chief Minister spoke about things that were not asked from her.
“She would not explain the reason behind industrial recession in Bengal … she would not clarify the reasons behind the dwindling industrial output of the State” which was second only to Maharashtra,” Dasgupta said wondering why the pharmaceutical industry of the State accounted for only 7 percent when it was 70 percent post Independence.
His party colleague Samik Bhattacharya said it was because of the economic recession that the State was witnessing massive exodus of labour. “Abut 70 lakh people from Bengal work in other States as construction workers… why the Chief Minister who allegedly has taken a whole lot of project for the minorities could not ensure that the minority workers do not have to leave Bengal for work,” he said.
Meanwhile, a day after the BJP leadership claimed that the saffron party would come to power with 200-plus seats in a 294-strong Assembly and that the ruling party would struggle to cross double digits Trinamool Congress’ poll strategist Prashant Kishor challenged them to put their statements on record that they would quit their positions if their party failed to get 200 seats.
“BJP will struggle to cross double digits and will get less than 100 seats in West Bengal. Will quit my work if they do,” Kishor who successfully campaigned for Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014 general election said.