On an election campaign in Bengal Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi equating him with Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and calling the duo two sides of the same coin that played complementary role to each other.
Gandhi who first held a rally in Malda and then at Muraroi in Birbhum district said electoral victories had made both the leaders “ahankari” (arrogant) and that they had unleashed “tanasahi” (dictatorsihip) in their respective territories.
“There appears no basic difference between Modi and Mamata who appear to be two sides of the same coin” Gandhi launching a frontal attack on the two said, adding “the people voted for them with certain expectations but after coming to power they became arrogant and unleashed dictatorship. While Modi is perpetrating an autocratic rule in Delhi refusing to heed opposition voices in West Bengal Mamata is doing the same by ignoring voices of dissent.”
Saying that their mutual tirades against each other were not real and made for public consumption Gandhi said, “in Parliament the Trinamool bails the BJP out whenever it is in trouble and in return the Prime Minister ignores the corrupt and anti-people regime she is perpetrating in Bengal.”
While the Prime Minister did not take any action against those who looted hard earned money belonging to the crores of people in Bengal in Saradha scam Banerjee seldom raised issues like the Centre’s toppling of the regional Governments like the one in Uttarakhand, Gandhi thundered at a rally which was largely filled up by the left supporters.
“While the BJP did nothing in the Vijay Mallya case Mamata did not arrest those involved in chit fund scam,” she said adding Banerjee’s Maa-Maati-Maanush slogan had turned into a joke as “Maa is suffering, Maati is drying up and Maanush are jobless.”
Banerjee came to power making loud promises but “she did not keep them and now Bengal is going backward by the day in terms of everything from law and order to industries to women’s rights” Gandhi said adding “the poor have no job here.” The State had never witnessed such a bleak situation where an authoritarian Government is oppressing millions with the help of ruling party goons, she said.