Launching a veiled attack on Union Home Minister Amit Shah for giving “ukhaad ke phenk do” remark against ruling TMC government, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said, “if someone thinks that I don’t understand Hindi, then he is mistaking as I know the meaning of ‘ukhaad ke phenk do'”.
Shah, who is on a two-day visit to West Bengal before the 2021 state poll, appealed to the people to uproot the Mamata Banerjee government. “To provide jobs to the youth of Bengal and help the poor people of the state, uproot the Mamata Banerjee government,” he said earlier in the day.
“What will happen, if I also give the same ‘ukhaad ke phenk do’ remark? I know it won’t be good for them also,” said Banerjee, who is also Trinamool Congress chief, at the state secretariat on Thursday.
Without naming Shah, she said, “He went to Bankura to have lunch and simultaneously, his agency people are conducting raids. What a planning? They are violating all the Covid-19 norms and when objected they start abusing Bengal. I would like to tell them that Bengal will not keep quiet, if someone abuses our state continuously.”
Stepping up her attack on the Narendra Modi-led central government, Banerjee said poor people have become deprived of onions and potatoes due to sudden surge in their prices. “They have passed a bill and removed onion and potatoes from the list of essential commodities. Now the price of onions and potatoes has surged. The central government has lost control over the prices of onion and potatoes. Poor people are deprived of onion and potato due to its higher prices. Now I would like to ask him (hinting at Amit Shah), who will throw them up now,” she said.
Banerjee further said that she will write a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi regarding the issues being faced by the farmers and the poor people.
“It is unfortunate that they are threatening our police officers in the name of Income Tax and Vigilance. I have not seen this before. We have an elected government here (West Bengal) and you are elected. So please maintain ‘Laxman Rekha’. Not a good idea to cross it,” she added.
Meanwhile, CPI(M) legislature Sujan Chakraborty termed Shah’s visit to Bengal as “purely drama”. “He came to Bengal spending lakhs of money to have lunch at a tribal house after spending last night at a five star hotel. Today, he will also spend the night at a five star hotel. Will he spend the night at that tribal house? He is doing ‘natak’ and nothing else. Earlier, also he had lunch at several tribal and Dalit houses. What happened to them? The situation of tribal, Dalit and down trodden people is same. Nothing has changed. They are facing the same problem. The Home Minister is doing politics,” said Chakraborty.
Echoing the similar views, Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said that having lunch with ‘Tribal’ and ‘Matua’ community people shows Shah’s desperation to win the election in the state. “His timing of meetings in Bengal clearly shows that he is here to woo the voters. His is here to do politics and nothing else. Having lunch with ‘Tribal’ and ‘Matua’ community people shows his desperation to win the election in the state,” he said.
Earlier in the day, Shah said that he can sense massive public anger against the Mamata Banerjee government and the death knell of her regime has been sounded. He urged the people to give BJP a chance to form the next government in the state to fulfil their dream of “Sonar Bangla” (golden Bengal).
Accompanied by state BJP president Dilip Ghosh, party national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya and its national vice-president Mukul Roy, Shah is on a day-long visit to the Bankura district. He is scheduled to hold organisational meetings in the district and also meet representatives of various communities and social groups.