KOLKATA: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday charged that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was blocking the Centre’s flagship welfare schemes in the state as they would not fetch bribes. He also accused the Opposition of misleading the youth on the Citizenship Amendment Act.
While addressing an event marking the 150th year of Kolkata Port Trust, which Mamata skipped, Modi hinted at a change of guard in the state in the 2021 Assembly elections with a quip, “I have a feeling the people of West Bengal will not be deprived of Central schemes for long.”
Dwelling on why Central welfare schemes like Ayushman Bharat and Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi were not implemented in West Bengal, he sarcastically said: “When there is no syndicate or cut-money involved, why would someone implement Central government schemes?”
Modi was alluding to the rampant corruption in the Trinamool Congress, which forced Mamata to warn her party satraps last year not to collect cut-money from the poor who seek access to government schemes.
In the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls, cut-money was one of Modi’s major planks in his rallies in West Bengal.
It had high resonance among the voters.
Earlier in the day, at Belur Math in Howrah, the headquarter of Ramakrishna Mission, Modi defended the CAA saying it had made the world aware of religious persecution of minorities in Pakistan.
“The CAA is not about taking away citizenship. It is about giving citizenship. This is not an overnight law for giving citizenship. The leaders of the Opposition are misguiding youth and students,” he said.
“We’ve only done what Mahatma Gandhi had said decades ago. Should we send these refugees back to die? Are they our responsibility or not? Should we make them our citizens or not?” he added, amid thunderous applause by the gathering.
Call it Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port
The PM renamed Kolkata port after Jan Sangh founder president Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee. It drew criticism from the Opposition, which called him a name-changer instead of a game-changer
Energising at Swami Vivekananda's room
Prime Minister Narendra Modi (pic) doing Pranayam at Swami Vivekananda’s room, at Belur Math on Sunday morning.
After an overnight stay at the Math, he began his day with a cup of sugar-free tea, followed by upma and dosa for breakfast.
Modi generally goes on a walk every morning but made an exception on Sunday. He instead took a stroll on the Math premises, said Math general secretary Swami Suvirananda.