Farmers Movement Archive

‘Tourists and outsiders’: TMC slams J P Nadda visit

KOLKATA: Trinamool Congress leaders on Saturday hit out at BJP “tourists” and “outsiders” coming to West Bengal, strumming the chords of Bengali ‘asmita’. Trinamool senior and MP Saugata Roy said BJP president J P Nadda should have striven to find a solution to the continuing farmer agitation at Singhu, near Delhi, instead of coming down to Bengal. “The BJP-led government has failed to break the stalemate at Singhu after eight rounds of talks. As many as 60 farmers died due to faulty policies of the BJP government. The BJP president should have addressed the problem instead of coming down to Bengal. The fact remains that the Centre has withdrawn minimum support price (MSP) for agricultural produce. The BJP president is behaving like a joker. Bengal farmers are firmly with Mamata Banerjee,” Roy said. Later, addressing a Trinamool gathering at Barrackpore railway station, Roy said: “People living in Bengal are Bengalis. Several communities — Hindu, Muslims, Christians and others — live here in harmony. But people like Nadda, chadda, hadda, Amit Shah and others, coming to Bengal ahead of assembly polls, are all outsiders.” At Bhatpara, Trinamool senior and Bengal urban development minister Firhad Hakim said BJP’s divisive politics was against Bengal’s culture and heritage. “A country doesn’t progress by dividing people. Look at Pakistan. It has slid down the GDP ladder. But Bangladesh could make major strides by declaring itself a secular country. People of Bengal are not used to division in terms of religion,” he said. Trinamool MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar described BJP leaders coming to the state as “tourists” visiting ahead of Bengal polls.

The Times of India

2021-01-10

Kolkata