- Trinamool Congress and BJP have been locking horns with each other ahead of the 2021 West Bengal Assembly elections
- The highly-anticipated state elections are likely to be held in April-May next year
Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday launched a blistering attack at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and accused it of carrying out “religious hatred politics” in the country. She questioned the Central government as to why Christman is not declared as a “national holiday”.
While speaking at a Christmas carnival at Allen Park in Park Street area in Kolkata, Mamata Banerjee said, “Last year and earlier also I said, Why Jesus Christ’s birthday will not be declared as a national holiday? You tell me it was there earlier. Why has the BJP government withdrawn that? Everybody has sentiments. What harm have Christians done? This festival is celebrated throughout the world.”
“This time yes there are some problems due to COVID-19 pandemic. We have to wear masks and maintain social distancing,” she added.
The West Bengal CM went on to question secularism in the country and accused the BJP-led Centre of pursuing “religious hatred” politics.
“Is there secularism in India? I am sorry to say, a typical religious hatred politics is going on. I want to condemn this today,” she said.
Christmas is a gazetted holiday, as per the National Portal of India.
‘Garbage of lies’: Mamata hits out at Amit Shah over Bengal’s development
Earlier in the day, Mamata Banerjee accused Union Home Minister Amit Shah of speaking untruth on the development of the state, describing the figures given by him on the position of the state on various parameters as “garbage of lies”.
At a press conference in Bolpur on Sunday, Shah accused the Trinamool Congress government in the state of failing to deliver, claiming that West Bengal lags behind most states in the country on various parameters, except on corruption and extortion.
“I want to tell Amit-ji that you are the home minister and it does not suit you to shell out lies provided by your party workers without cross-checking,” Banerjee said.
Maintaining that she will give a detailed reply to Shah’s accusations on Tuesday, the chief minister said, “I will only speak on two things today, he said we are a zero in industry, we are number one in MSME.”
“He also said that we have not made village roads, we are number one on that count too and this information has been shared by the Government of India,” she added.