KOLKATA: An article in an RSS-linked Bengali magazine has stirred up a hornet's nest by claiming that both BJP and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee share the dream of "Congress-mukt Bharat" (Congress-free India).
While the BJP distanced itself from the article in 'Swastika' calling it "baseless" and far from the party's official stand, the Trinamool Congress also rubbished allegations of "understanding with the saffron camp" but the Congress said that the "cat is now out of the bag".
The article titled 'Keno itihas muchte chaichen Mamata? Shilpo agroho na Sonia khotom?' (Why is Mamata keen on erasing history? To attract investment or to destroy Sonia?) was written by Nirmalya Mukhopadhyay and published in the December 13 issue of the magazine.
It speaks about the TMC chairperson's recent meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi, and claimed that both share the dream of "Congress-free India".
"It is clear from her changing stance that this is not the same Mamata Banerjee. Narendra Modi's dream is Congress-free India. I feel that Mamata now also believes in the same dream. That's why she is trying to erase the history to sell this dream," the author wrote.
The writer also wondered what "political calculation" Banerjee has in her mind that she is bringing her "enemies and known rivals" close to her.
Repeated calls to Tilak Ranjan Bera, editor of the magazine, went unanswered.
RSS state general secretary Jishnu Basu said that he is yet to go through the article.
"I am yet to read the article, so I cannot comment on it. But I don't know about any understanding as the truth is that 62 BJP workers have been killed in the post-poll violence in West Bengal," Basu told PTI.
RSS sources said that the magazine is linked with the organisation as its editorial and managing committee has several people who have an RSS background.
State BJP spokesperson Shamik Bhattacharya termed the article "baseless" and said it has nothing to do with the party's policy or stand.
"It has nothing to do with the BJP's policy or stand. Swastika might be an RSS-linked magazine, but many articles in it come out which are not in tandem with our policies and principles," he said.
Senior TMC leader Kunal Ghosh dubbed the allegations of "understanding with the BJP" as baseless.
"The allegations of understanding with the BJP are baseless. Mamata Banerjee is the strongest opposition face against the saffron camp," the TMC's state general secretary said.
The opposition Congress, however, alleged that the "cat is out of the bag".
"The secret is now out in the open. For a long time, we have been saying that BJP and the TMC have a covert understanding and have been working together to destroy Congress. But they won't succeed," Congress leader Pradip Bhattacharya said.
The TMC, which is trying to make inroads in other states, has been up in the arms against the Congress over its alleged failure to counter the BJP.
In an escalation in the war of words between the TMC and the Congress, Banerjee's party had last week claimed that it is now the "real Congress", given the fact that the "war-weary" grand old party has failed to perform its role as the main opposition to the BJP.
Ties between the Congress and the TMC got further strained after the ruling party in West Bengal, in an article in its mouthpiece 'Jago Bangla', asserted that Banerjee, and not Rahul Gandhi, has emerged as the face of the opposition against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Meanwhile, a day after UNESCO accorded a heritage tag to Durga puja in Kolkata, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday, in a dig at the opposition BJP, said those who had accused her dispensation of causing hindrance during the observation of the festival should hang their heads in shame.
During the assembly polls, the saffron party had alleged that the TMC practises "appeasement politics" and festivals such as Durga puja have suffered because of that.
"Some people had spread lies against us. They said that we don't allow Durga Puja celebrations in the state. Today, their falsehood stands exposed. They should be ashamed of themselves. Today, I am proud and honoured for what we have achieved (UNESCO heritage status)."
"What I achieved yesterday, I am pleased. I have been trying for this for a long time," she said while addressing a Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) poll rally in Bagha Jatin area.
The UNESCO on Wednesday announced that Durga Puja in Kolkata has just been added to its list of 'Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity".
"I had vowed to make Bengal the number one state, and I have kept my promise. They (BJP) had abused me, but they can't abuse UNESCO. Let them go to UNESCO and abuse it for giving us this honour if they have the guts to do so. In next year's Durga Puja, we will celebrate this achievement. We thank UNESCO and United Nations for this honour," she said while addressing another rally at Behala.
Reacting to Banerjee's comment, BJP national vice-president Dilip Ghosh said the TMC indeed had tried to stop Durga Puja immersion.
"We have not forgotten how the TMC government twice tried to stop Durga Puja immersion on Dashami as the dates of Muharram clashed with it. It is a fact," Ghosh said.
BJP state president Sukanta Majumdar said it is due to the initiative by the union government that this honour was achieved.
Referring to the Lakhimpur Kheri incident during a farmers' protest in Uttar Pradesh where eight people, including four protesting farmers, died after being mowed down by a vehicle allegedly belonging to a Union minister's son, Banerjee said she does not believe in "killing farmers by crushing them under the wheels".
"The BJP had planned the Lakhimpur Kheri incident that claimed so many lives but while conducting protest over Singur issue, I had stopped a speeding truck otherwise it would have crushed several TMC leaders and supporters," she said Continuing her tirade against the BJP, Banerjee accused the Central government of not providing adequate funds to the state for restoration and rehabilitation of the city and the coastal part after it was ravaged by Cyclone Amphan last year.
The chief minister said her dream project of linking the entire city through Metro Rail services could not see the light of the day as the Centre has slashed funding for the projects.
"When I was the Railway minister, I had sanctioned the funds. But after that (when TMC left the UPA-2 government) everything is moving at a snail's pace," she said.
Reaching out to the voters in the refugee colonies of the city, she said all such colonies in the city and the outskirts would be regularised, and legal land rights will be provided to them.
"I have also instructed the state police department not to evict refugees even from the central government-owned land," Banerjee said.
The chief minister, while speaking on her government's vision in her third tenure, said, "I am working towards bringing industry to the state so that jobs can be generated. That's my aim, and I will achieve it," she said.
She said her government is trying to set up a one-stop online mechanism for clearing industries and building approvals easier, and making the system corruption-free.
Giving a call for a "corruption-free" civic body, the TMC boss asked the party candidates in the KMC polls to work for the people and ensure that their grievances related to civic issues are addressed at the earliest.
Taking a dig at opposition parties for their comments against her beautification drive of the city, Banerjee said she had faced a lot of criticism but has achieved her goal of "beautification of Kolkata".
"When we started painting the city and its buildings in white and blue, many people criticised us. But I have seen buildings in white and blue colour along the thoroughfares in Mumbai, Goa and Karnataka. Many people feel jealous after seeing Kolkata today. Blue and white is not the colour of my party. Blue is the colour of the sky. There is no limit to the sky," she said while addressing another rally at the Kalighat area.
Banerjee said grievance cells would be set up in all the wards to expedite civic-related issues.
The chief minister said her government will provide drinking water through pipelines by 2024.
"Our government doesn't charge water tax. The central government had told us that the World Bank won't give funds if tax is not charged on water, but still, we refrained from levying water tax. By 2024, we will provide piped drinking water across the state," she said.
TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Thursday said the party will dislodge the "communal" BJP from power in every state where it (TMC) goes.
Banerjee, who was addressing a civic poll campaign meeting in north-central Kolkata, said TMC has bagged 24 per cent votes in the November urban local bodies poll in Tripura securing the second position within three months of entering the north eastern state.
"We (TMC) are already in Goa and Meghlaya as one of the principal parties in those states. We are not confined between Coochbehar (in north Bengal) to Canning (in the Sundarbans) any more. In the coming days Trinamool Congress will come to power in the states wherever it will go with the people's support. We will defeat the communal BJP everywhere," he said.
In Goa, where state election is due in February, "TMC will either be in power or in the chair of the principal opposition," the party leader said.
Banerjee claimed that TMC will win the December 19 Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) poll going by the results of the April-May assembly poll and the bypoll in West Bengal.
"We will win with the spontaneous support of the people. We will win in fair elections. If anyone comes to intimidate you, give him a dressing down," he told the gathering after an over three km road show in the north- central part of the city. Banerjee accused BJP of resorting to falsehood and deceit in the name of election campaigns."
"So many heavyweights from Delhi came to Bengal before the Assembly poll and spread lies about us. They spread hatred to create division among the people, but you (the people) thwarted their (BJP's) diabolical design."
He referred to UNESCO's 'Intangible Cultural Heritage' tag to Bengal's Durga Puja and said "One leader from BJP (Amit Shah) had said Durga puja is not allowed in the state. What he will say now?" He referred to the Mamata Banerjee government's financial help to clubs and Durga puja committees and said it was given to undertake social work but the opposition BJP rushed to the court as they were disconnected from the people.
Without naming the union home minister, he accused the BJP top brass of "maligning Kolkata and Bengal by peddling lies."
Continuing his diatribe against Shah, the TMC leader said the NCRB data of the union home ministry said Kolkata is the number one city in the country in respect to the safety and security of women.
"But in your campaigns (for the state election) you (Shah) had said the opposite".
On BJP's demand for deployment of central forces in the KMC poll, he said there were five to six paramilitary personnel in every booth during the Assembly poll and in the bypoll after it and the Trinamool Congress won them by huge margins.
"Let there be central force in every booth during the KMC poll. We don't have any issue. TMC will romp home with people's love. If anyone resorts to strong arm tactics, if anyone from our party takes to unfair means to get more votes, confront him," the TMC leader said.
He assured the people that if anyone in TMC resorts to unfair means to get more votes the person will be expelled in the next 24 hours.
"This is the "nobo (new) Trinamool Congress," he said.
Banerjee, who is considered the number two in TMC, alleged that BJP had prevented the opposition from campaigning for the urban local body in Tripura.
"We are not BJP. Has there been report of any single incident of preventing the opposition during the campaigning for KMC polls"? TMC MP Sudip Bandopadhyay and state minister Tapas Roy accompanied him.
Thousands of slogan shouting TMC activists accompanied their flower bedecked truck.
Hitiing back to Trinamool, Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari on Thursday said that the opposition BJP will continue to push for various demands, which, if fulfilled, will ensure their welfare.
Speaking on the third and concluding day of a sit-in organised by Bharatiya Janata Kishan Morcha in Singur, where a massive anti-land acquisition movement had paved the way for TMC boss Mamata Banerjee's rise to power in 2011, Adhikari claimed that the Bengal government was "apathetic to the plight of the farmers", who have suffered immensely due to natural calamities.
The kisan morcha (BJP's farmer wing) has been seeking a slash in the VAT charged by the state on fuel, adequate compensation for those who have incurred heavy crop losses during cyclones, free electricity for farming activities among other measures.
The protesters also demanded that crops be collected at minimum support price (MSP) from farmers.
"VAT has been reduced on fuel not only in BJP-helmed states such as Tripura, but also in several opposition-ruled states, benefiting farmers and common people. But the Mamata Banerjee government continues to maintain silence on the matter," the Nandigram MLA claimed.
He further said that his party members will hit the streets in protest, and may even organise a march to state secretarial 'Nabanna' over the matter.
Adhikari, later in the day, had lunch with farmers at the site of the sit-in at Gopalnagar in Singur.
Bengal BJP president Sukanta Majumdar had on Wednesday said that crops must be bought at MSP from every farmer and no one should have to resort to distress selling.
He also said 'sabzi mandis' (wholesale vegetable market) should be made operational in every block, with no intervention of any middleman.