Mamata Banerjee: If a PM says so many lies, what will people learn?
Times of India | 30 May 2024
KOLKATA: Launching an all-out attack on PM Narendra Modi on the penultimate day of electioneering, chief minister Mamata Banerjee asked, "If the PM of a country utters so many lies, what will children learn? What will people of the country learn?" She was addressing a rally in Baruipur on Wednesday afternoon, barely 24 hours after PM Modi attended a political meeting there.
Literally matching Modi's footsteps, Banerjee also held a roadshow from Shyambazar to Swami Vivekananda's residence, the same route that the PM had taken on Tuesday, starting her programme by garlanding Netaji's statue at Shyambazar.
"The PM came here to garland Netaji just for show. Centre is yet to declare a national holiday on Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's birth anniversary. They come here to garland Netaji's statue during elections just to reap political benefits," she claimed. At another rally later in the day she said, "I walked from the statue of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose to Swami Vivekananda's residence. Modi went there for politics. I went to protest (for not declaring Jan 23 as a national holiday) and to salute Netaji.
In Baruipur, the CM claimed she was there to address "the lies PM Modi had said in Bengal" over the past two days. "I wasn't supposed to hold a meeting here today. But later, I felt it necessary to respond to BJP's lies. That's why I have come here. Let BJP challenge me if they have the guts.... I have seen several PMs but I must say that I have never seen a PM uttering so many lies," she said.
A lleging that BJP and PM Modi were trying to play the religion card, CM Mamata Banerjee said, “I respect everyone – every majority, every minority every caste and every creed.” Campaigning for Trinamool general secretary Abhishek Banerjee in Diamond Harbour in the evening — the two shared a dais for the first time during the two-monthlong campaign — the CM dared Modi to get her and Abhishek arrested.
“It is very important to change Modi govt... We get threatened many times but nothing can be achieved by threatening us. We can fight. They say they will arrest me and Abhishek. So, go ahead and do it,” she said and added: “If anyone in Trinamool is a thief, then prove it.”
The CM also attacked Modi for his recent comments on Congress’s Rahul Gandhi. “The PM says the most unbelievable things. Here is a youth, who is young enough to be his grandson, and Modi says he will be ‘the PM of Pakistan’. The man doesn’t even understand what should be said and what shouldn’t,” she said.