Thunderstorm disrupts Kolkata flights, Shah’s plane hovers before landing
The Statesman | 30 March 2026
After Union home minister Amit Shah presented a charge sheet against the Mamata Banerjee government, in Kolkata, the Trinamul Congress launched a counter attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government at the Centre, presenting another charge sheet in response to Shah’s claims.
On Saturday, the Mamata Banerjee‑led party presented a 15‑page charge sheet titled “Mota Bhai, We Demand Answers.”
State minister Bratya Basu, Members of Parliament Kirti Azad and Mahua Moitra refuted every allegation levelled by Mr Shah.
Minister Basu said, “The Special Intensive Revision is a conspiracy hatched by you (the BJP). You seek to drive a nail into the Trinamul’s coffin, we will wrench that very nail out. We have already prepared our responses to every point you have raised in your charge sheet.”
The TMC claimed that the BJP called Bengalis as Bangladeshi and Rohingya. “Then you harass and beat us in BJP-ruled states for speaking Bengali. Then you starved us of every rupee that was rightfully ours. And now you have released a charge sheet, declaring us criminals. This is the BJP’s four-step relationship with Bengal: insult, deprive, criminalise and harass. You question our language, withheld our funds, and now have the audacity to question our character. Amit Shah came to declare Bengalis as criminals.”
The ruling Trinamul party countered Shah’s claims by highlighting women’s safety in the states governed by the BJP.
“What is the state of women’s safety in your own states? Look at Maharashtra and Rajasthan. Why do you remain silent regarding Manipur? What transpired in Unnao and Hathras in Uttar Pradesh? You welcome rapists by garlanding them. You give a free pass to individuals like Brij Bhushan. Talk of women’s safety does not suit you,” said Basu.
Responding to Shah’s allegations regarding “infiltrators,” Basu remarked that people live in fear of car bomb explosions in Delhi, terrorist attacks on Parliament, or tragedies like Pahalgam.
He questioned why the names of those apprehended in connection with such incidents are not disclosed, while Bengal is singled out with claims of demographic shifts.
The TMC leaders said: “Today, as Amit Shah stood before the cameras to release his so-called charge sheet against Bengal, Bengal has its own charge sheet to present, one backed not by political vendetta, but by facts, figures, and reality of crores of Indians. This is a charge sheet against a Home Minister who did not just fail Bengal, he failed the nation.
He asked whether Bengal must be “transformed into Gujarat.”
The leaders also labelled Amit Shah as “India’s most useless and failed home ministe