Narendra Modi accuses Mamata Banerjee of favouring Bangladeshi immigrants

Citing the Supreme Court’s order on infiltration, Modi asserts his views on deporting the illegal immigrants are based on the court’s ruling

Modi says there are two types of people who have come in — infiltrators and refugees. Those who are refugees are our family. Photo: Mint

Kolkata: Narendra Modi, the prime ministerial candidate of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), accused West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee of favouring Bangladeshi immigrants with jobs at the cost of depriving the state’s youth.

At the same time, he reminded Banerjee that she had also been extremely critical of Muslim immigrants from Bangladesh in 2005.

“Didi, you had rocked Parliament and said the same thing in 2005, what your brother (read Modi) is saying today,” Modi said.

He addressed rallies in Krishnanagar and Kankurgachi park in North Kolkata, while campaigning for BJP candidates Satyabrata Mukherjee and Rahul Sinha.

Aware of large-scale infiltration along the border in North 24 Parganas and Nadia districts and the consolidation of Hindu votes in the area, Modi said that Banerjee, a leader who used to fight for the people, has changed.

“Didi, you have been talking of poribarton (change). I see poribarton in you and nowhere else,” he took a jibe at Banerjee’s famous slogan prior to the 2011 Assembly election.

To keep his options open after the results of the general elections are announced on 16 May, Modi also said that he had tremendous respect for Didi for fighting the Left single-handedly.

“I took pride in the fact there was a tigress who could tackle the Left. What happened to you? Power and chair will come and go but I will request you to stop being hungry of the chair and return to the service of people,” he said.

This is the third time Modi broached the subject of infiltrators, even though all the other parties, Trinamool Congress, Congress and the Left, have unanimously come down heavily on him for stoking communal passion in Bengal.

While Banerjee has dared Modi to touch the people of Bengal and demanded he be shoved to the jail with a rope tied around his waist, Congress leader Adhir Chowdhury reminded Modi that BJP leader L.K. Advani was also a political refugee.

Modi at an election campaign in Sreerampore had said that infiltrators coming from Bangladesh for vote bank politics would be deported once he came to power.

Citing the Supreme Court’s order on infiltration, Modi asserted that his views on deporting the illegal immigrants are based on the apex Court’s ruling.

“Indrajit Gupta as union home minister had said in 1997 May that one crore Bangladeshi immigrants have crossed over to India and even Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee have said earlier how madrasahs along Bengal-Bangladesh border are turning out to be dens of ISI activities,” he said.

For the Trinamool Congress and the Left, trying to gain the sympathy of Muslim voters by cashing in on Modi’s views on immigrants, the BJP prime ministerial candidate warned that infiltrators and refugees of partition cannot be categorised under the same bracket.

“Refugees of partition are the responsibility of the whole country, of all the states, be it Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana. Refugees are our family,” he said asserting that his comments were being wrongly interpreted, yet again for vote bank politics.

If Modi was directly scathing at the Krishnanagar rally, he was humorous, subtle and veiled in his criticism and interactive with the audience at the Kolkata (North) campaign.

He touched upon the Saradha scam by referring to Banerjee’s desire to tie him up with a rope and send him to jail. “If you have to buy ropes, you have to call a tender and then Saradha companies will bid and the whole process will be expensive. Why spend on ropes? I can straight away go to jail, if you tell me, now that I am your guest,” he added.

Modi also told Banerjee that Saradha being a grave matter, why was she dithering to put the Saradha culprits behind the bars, when she is not one.

He also touched upon the growing atrocities, such as rape and violence, on women in Bengal by saying that as a woman, especially as Didi (elder sister), her first priority should be to protect women.

Finally, Modi, much to the embarrassment of Trinamool Congress, said that every abuse Banerjee is uttering against him is coming across to him as flowers. The allusion was a reminder of those honeymoon days in the past when Banerjee at sent a bouquet of roses after Modi became the Gujarat chief minister for the second consecutive term.

NAGESH DUBEY