If there are infiltrators, the home minister should be the first to resign: Abhishek
Times of India | 1 January 2026
Kolkata: Trinamool Congress on Tuesday hit back at Union home minister Amit Shah, saying he was the "first honest Modi minister who repeatedly admits his own incompetence in public."
Speaking to reporters, party national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee said, "If there were infiltrators in India, your party was in officer for 11 years and you were the home minister for 6 years. Then you should be the first one to resign."
Banerjee asked Shah to hear out what BJP MPs said in Bengal. "We saw this drama for 5 years now. I don't know how closely he follows Bengal politics, but on the issue of infiltrators, I would urge him to first listen carefully to what his own Rajya Sabha MP Ananta Maharaj said, as well as what their Lok Sabha MP Jagannath Sarkar said just 2 months ago," he said.
He also said, "Jagannath Sarkar said that if the BJP comes to office in Bengal, there would be no concept of borders in the state. And today Amit Shah talks about securing the border and holding Mamata Banerjee responsible. Has BJP served Sarkar a show-cause notice, suspended him from the party, or taken any action against him? As far as I know, no action was taken against either of them."
He said, "From migrant workers to elderly people, everyone is being harassed under SIR. Today someone died in Ramnagar, yesterday someone died in Ranibandh. Every day we hear news of deaths. How many BJP netas went to sit beside these families? Were those who died infiltrators? If names were deleted, why can't the Election Commission publish the list and prove how many of them were Rohingya or Bangladeshis?"
He added, "Today Amit Shah did not say a single word about Rohingya or Bangladeshis. Two days ago, 2 youths from South Dinajpur came to meet me. One was named Asit Sarkar and the other Gautam Barma. One lives in Tapan and the other in Kumarganj. They told me they are BJP booth presidents and that their Lok Sabha MP is Sukanta Majumdar. They worked in Mumbai for 20 years but were jailed by Maharashtra Police. One of them called his wife and asked her to seek help from Majumdar, but no one came forward. Their only fault was that they spoke in Bengali."
Speaking on the Matua issue, Banerjee said: "And look at the way you harassed the Matua community by giving them false hopes of citizenship. BJP representatives and netas openly said that if Matuas are removed, then so be it. They talk about stopping corruption while sitting beside someone who was caught on camera taking money. That is BJP's politics."