KOLKATA: A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi talked tough against violence in the name of cow vigilantism, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee alleged that the Prime Minister himself gave power to the cow vigilantes to act with impunity.
Speaking to the media after casting her presidential vote here on Monday, the West Bengal chief minister drew comparisons between the acts of cow vigilantes with the mythology of Lord Hanuman burning down Lanka with fire on his tail. “Prime Minister has himself released these monkeys with their tails on fire to cause havoc in the name of gau raksha. Centre will set fire and states will douse these flames?” she said.
She also said West Bengal is suffering because of the Centre’s foreign policies. “Centre has ruined relationships with China, Bhutan, Nepal and Bangladesh. We are sandwiched between these countries and are the worst sufferers. Over 400 Chinese language schools have come up at Pashupatinagar in Indo-Nepal border near Darjeeling. China is eyeing Chicken’s Neck corridor still Centre is not sending more troops there,” she added.
The West Bengal chief minister also alleged that the Centre opened the international borders to create law and order problems in West Bengal. “Why was the border opened to let Jamaat (terror outfit Jamatul Mujahideen Bangladesh) men enter the state to instigate riots after being chased away by Sheikh Hasina government? What are the NIA, IB, RAW and other intelligence agencies doing?” she questioned.
Urging opposition parties to come together during the monsoon session of the Parliament, the West Bengal chief minister alleged that demonetisation and GST were big scams of the Modi government on which TMC MPs will question in the Parliament. “We will break but not bow down,” she added.
Mamata Banerjee said that TMC voted for Opposition presidential candidate Meira Kumar. “By voting for Meira Kumar, we protested against Centre’s anti-people policies,” she said.