Amit Shah blames Mamata Banerjee for delay in India-Bangladesh border fencing in Bengal

Union Home Minister Amit Shah declared that both West Bengal and the country as a whole will remain vulnerable until the borders are properly secured, expressing disappointment that former chief minister Mamata Banerjee failed to hand over the land needed to fence the India-Bangladesh border despite being asked multiple times.

Noting that not a single former CM of the state had ever taken part in events organised by the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) or the Border Security Force (BSF), Shah praised current Bengal CM Suvendu Adhikari for changing that trend.

"My desperate pleas to Mamata Banerjee for land to set up border fences by the BSF fell on deaf ears. I had been asking for 1,129 acres of land to strengthen border security since 2014. We received the land parcel only after the Adhikari government was formed in the state," Shah stated. He was speaking at an event held for the groundbreaking and foundation-laying of several SSB projects at its frontier headquarters in Siliguri.

Describing the SSB as an apolitical organisation, Shah remarked that earlier chief ministers skipping the border forces' celebrations sent out the wrong message.

Shah further expressed regret that governments prior to the current one had, since Independence, not given the national song Vande Mataram the recognition it deserved.

"The complete version of Vande Mataram was never sung in India until at the Red Fort during the Independence Day celebrations this year. It gives me solace that the nation has finally recognised the song on the 150th year of its creation by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay," he added.  (With inputs from PTI)