‘Modi sarkar jhoota sarkar’
Land Bill z Mamata hits the streets, mocks PM for his Mann Ki Baat on farmers
Mamata Banerjee walks with her supporters in Kolkata on Wednesday against Modi government’s land bill.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday hit the streets against the proposed amendments to the land acquisition Act and slammed the NDA government at the Centre for its “lies”, calling it a “jhoota sarkar”.
During her fiery speech at the protest rally, the Trinamool Congress chief also mocked at ‘Mann Ki Baat’, a radio programme hosted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. She said nobody knows whose mind is the Prime Minister speaking during the informal radio speech, and that his tenure so far has been “worse than the Emergency”.
Banerjee, who took out a three-kilometre long “padyatra” to protest against the land bill, said: “After about one year, if you go through its list of achievements, it is empty. They are only engaged in clicking selfies, giving indulgence to communal violence and dividing the people on religious lines. They are only telling lies.”
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“It is a jhoota government. It is a jhoota sarkar,” the CM said, while breaking into Hindi during the rally, which she addressed in Bengali. Banerjee observed that people have now started admitting that “sachhe din bhi nahi aaye, acche din bhi nahi aaye (neither the honest days came nor did the better days came)”.
Calling the ordinance more draconian than the UPA’s land acquisition Act, the Trinamool Congress chief said: “In 2011, when the bill was introduced by the UPA II, we protested against the bill. And now, when the ordinance was issued, we protested. Apart from Trinamool Congress, no political party could stand against BJP. But we did. Whatever we said on the first day, we have the guts to maintain it till the end. We will not acquire land without taking consent of the farmers and we would continue protesting against the anti-farmer bill.”
“Things are turning for the worse as the promise of ‘good governance’ is replaced with ‘communal violence everyday’,” she said, and accused the BJP government of stopping funding for at least 16 projects in West Bengal, including the MGNREGA and the ICDS. “They speak their Mann Ki Baat… But what can they speak… They do not have dimag (brain).”
The TMC leader further said that the Centre was trying to muzzle the Opposition voices and also that of the media. “Have you heard or read any news about the BJP’s national executive meet in Bangalore? No one has heard anything because the media was barred and the press was gagged. Doordarshan has become BJP Darshan,” she said.
Banerjee said her party would never bow down to any threat from any quarter. “We have come to power through a long struggle of 35 years. We are not here by fluke… Trinamool Congress will oppose the Land Bill ordinance, come what may,” she added.
Also slams CBI: ‘Go and collect TMC account details from Income TAX, EC’
In her first reaction to the CBI notice to TMC for its financial details, Mamata Banerjee said her party has always been “transparent” in filing Income Tax returns. “The ruling party at the Centre (BJP) spent crores of rupees in the Delhi elections. Nobody asked for any account.
How dare you ask for my party’s accounts? You are king of thieves… If you really need my party’s book of accounts, go and collect it from the Income Tax department and the Election Commission.
We are a transparent party and we have duly filed returns every year.” Questioning the timing of the CBI action, she said: “The CBI keeps on sending notices in a planned way before every election. So, keep on sending notices. I would pack them in a sack and parcel the sack to Delhi when it is full. But after that, people would send you the final notice.” ENS
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