Abhishek Banerjee, MP and national general secretary of the Trinamool Congress, on Friday launched a sharp attack on the BJP over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) while addressing a large public rally at Saltora in Bankura district.
“Ask BJP leaders to first show the birth certificates of their fathers and then produce their own,” Banerjee remarked. He further challenged local BJP MP Soumitra Khan and former Union minister Subhas Sarkar to present their birth certificates, claiming they were unlikely to possess such documents.
Criticising what he described as “harsh” and arbitrary actions during the SIR process, Banerjee said the manner in which it was being conducted was such that even Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore and Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose would have been asked to line up for a hearing.
Escalating his attack, Banerjee accused the BJP of being responsible for deaths that allegedly occurred during the SIR process across the state. “They claim to protect Hindus, yet the highest number of deaths has been reported from the Hindu community,” he said. He also mocked BJP leaders for alleging that the SIR was intended to identify and evict Rohingyas, adding that they had now gone to the extent of branding MP Dev Adhikari and even Nobel laureate Professor Amartya Sen as Rohingyas.
Addressing local issues, Banerjee spoke about the hardships faced by stone quarry workers in the Saltora area. He said he had already discussed the matter with the Chief Minister and announced that by 31 March, several stalled stone quarries would resume operations, generating employment for at least 25,000 people.