Bengal CM Mamata slams centre over IndiGo crisis

Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday slammed the Centre for mishandling the IndiGo crisis and asked the government to arrange for special train services as an alternative to ferry stranded passengers back to their destinations.

“Thousands of passengers are stranded at airports. So, what is the alternative for them? This is a travel disaster as the maximum number of flights has been stopped,” Banerjee told in Kolkata, even as the crisis involving India’s largest air service provider entered its seventh day.

Alleging that the BJP-led Centre was only concerned about its votes and not the interests of the people at large, Banerjee asked “the Government of India to make a plan to resolve the issue,” adding, “it seems that the BJP is only concerned about capturing the institutions and not the interests of the people.”

Speaking on the issue of Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressing to Bengali Novelist — and the creator of the coinage “Vande Mataram” — Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, as “Bankim Da” Banerjee attacked the former for being “unaware of the history of Bengal.” This, though the Prime Minister corrected himself the next moment, naming the pre-Independence writer as “Bankim Babu.”

Attacking the saffron leadership, she said, “They not only do not know the history of Bengal but also they have been in the habit of Bengali icons like Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, Rabindranath Tagore, Vidya Sagar.” She said, “Things have come to such a pass that today anyone who speaks the Bengali language is promptly dismissed as a Bangladeshi, which is humiliation of the Bengali culture.” Referring to the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls, the Chief Minister also attacked the Election Commission of India for thrusting it on the people of Bengal in “the most unplanned manner.” She said, “It is difficult to understand why SIR was imposed in such an unplanned manner to be completed in a matter of mere two months. Why was there such a hurry.”

The Chief Minister was likely to begin a two-day trip of Cooch Behar in North Bengal, where she would take up the SIR issue in public rallies, Trinamool Congress sources said.