Bengal principal corridor for infiltration: Amit Shah
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday sharpened the BJP’s campaign pitch for the West Bengal Assembly polls, releasing a “charge sheet” against the TMC Government and framing the election as a battle not merely for Bengal, but for the country’s security.
Launching a scathing attack against the Mamata Banerjee Government, Shah alleged that after 15 years of the TMC rule, West Bengal had become the country’s “principal corridor” for infiltration due to “TMC’s appeasement politics, corruption and political violence”. “Mamata didi has always played the politics of the victim card. Sometimes she talks about her injury, sometimes she abuses the Election Commission. But the people of Bengal now understand Mamata didi’s victim card politics very well,” Shah said at a press conference.
In its reaction, Trinamool Congress slammed Amit Shah with a counter to his “charge sheet”, accusing the BJP of trying to polarise the people of poll-bound West Bengal and evade accountability for its own record on a host of issues, including women’s safety.
Hours after Shah’s Press conference, the ruling TMC questioned the BJP-led Centre over the prolonged violence in Manipur, women’s safety in BJP-ruled States and the Centre’s handling of illegal immigration.
Hitting out at West Bengal CM over her opposition to the Election Commission’s SIR exercise, Shah accused her of manufacturing outrage to protect the TMC’s “minority vote bank”.
“The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls has taken place in other States too, but nowhere has it been made such an issue. It has been made an issue in Bengal only because Mamata Banerjee wants to protect her vote bank. Abusing constitutional bodies like the Election Commission is not part of Bengali culture,” Amit Shah said.
Claiming that infiltration through Assam had “almost come to an end” after the BJP came to power there, Shah alleged that West Bengal has now emerged as the “last remaining route through which infiltrators enter India and disperse across States”.
“The Bengal election is important not only for Bengal but for the entire country. The security of the entire country is, in a way, linked to the Bengal election,” Shah said.
In one of his sharpest attacks, Shah said the security of the strategically crucial Siliguri corridor — the narrow strip linking the Northeast to the rest of India — was being endangered “because of the TMC Government’s appeasement politics”.
The home minister alleged that despite repeated requests by the Centre, the Mamata Banerjee Government had not provided the land required for fencing along the Bangladesh border.
Shah said that if the BJP comes to power in Bengal, it would hand over the required land to the Centre within 45 days for fencing.
“In the coming elections, Bengal has to choose between fear and trust. For the last 15 years, the rule of fear, corruption and appeasement politics has been going on in the state. Mamata Banerjee has created a new way of politics by using lies and violence to move her politics forward. The basis of TMC coming to power lies in lies, fear and violence. But since 2011, the BJP has been fighting against these,” Shah said.
Senior TMC leaders Mahua Moitra, Bratya Basu and Kirti Azad held a joint press conference where they targeted the Union Home Minister over his criticism of the TMC Government on women’s safety. “Amit Shah is talking about women’s security. What is the condition of women’s safety in BJP-ruled States?”
Rejecting the allegation, the TMC noted that the BJP has been in power at the Centre for over a decade and has been ruling several border States.
“BJP rules at the Centre. It rules 15 states and most border States through which infiltration is happening. Amit Shah himself is the Union Home Minister. So what exactly has he been waiting for?” senior TMC leader and West Bengal Education Minister Bratya Basu said.
Questioning the Centre’s claims on infiltration, Basu asked why the Union Home Ministry had “failed” to identify and deport illegal immigrants. In a separate statement, Basu alleged that the BJP was using the issue of infiltration to create divisions in Bengal.
Moitra said, “It is pathetic that he is standing before cameras to declare filing of chargesheet when there are cases against him by central agencies.” “When a clown sits on a throne, he doesn’t become a king, but it becomes a circus,” she said, describing Shah as a “clown”.
TMC Lok Sabha MP Kirti Azad said the BJP government withheld Rs one lakh crore dues of the State and blocked money for all development and social welfare projects, which did not happen for Maharashtra, Gujarat, and Rajasthan. Azad described Shah as the only Union Home Minister having “cases against him” in history.
