PM raps Didi for insulting people of Bengal, vows ashol poriborton; Mithun joins BJP
Prime Minister Narendra Modi explained the “poriborton” narrative during the Sunday’s mega election rally at Brigade Parade Ground in Kolkata even as he launched a blistering attack on Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for “letting down and insulting the people of Bengal” who had reposed faith in her by voting her to power in 2011.
“This will be the ashol poriborton (real change) and not the fake one unleashed by the Trinamool Congress when people brought Mamata didi to power with great hopes, but she betrayed them and chose to play the limited role of a bua (aunt) to her own bhatija (nephew) considering not for once the plights of lakhs of other nephews that looked up to her for respite,” said the PM, taking a dig at the Chief Minister for allegedly unleashing a regime marked by “corruption and nepotism.”
Cine star Mithun Chakrabarty on Sunday joined the BJP in front of a massive saffron crowd at the historic Brigade Parade Ground in Kolkata. The megastar, who received praises from Modi, said he had been inspired by the PM’s ideas.
“Yes I have been involved in some kind of extreme politics in my early years as I wanted to do something for the poor and downtrodden … now I have joined the BJP as I have seen the PM doing the works that correlate with my dreams… So I have joined this party and will campaign for it,” the former TMC Rajya Sabha member who shared an excellent chemistry with the erstwhile Left Government too said.
Reciting a dialogue from one of his movies where he said, “I am a cobra … whose one bite will transform you into a photo frame.”
Attacking Mamata for allowing “syndicate raj, tolabaji (extortion) and corruption” to flourish during her rule, Modi said, “Your Government has seen so many scams that a ‘scam Olympics’ can easily be organised here.”
The PM reminded “nepotism” and “cut money” had been the only considerations for getting an appointment in Government jobs. “But after the BJP comes to power on May 2, things will change forever… we will bring ashol poriborton and not the fake one.
“Bengal will become sonar Bangla (golden Bengal) and from city of joy Kolkata will graduate into city of opportunities… new flyovers will be constructed, new infrastructures will be developed, industrial investment which had become a story of the past will return to Bengal…
“The smaller cities and towns will get adequate infrastructure to sustain a self-supporting economy, food processing and port land development which have great prospects in Bengal will be developed … there will be new opportunity for the farmers, workers and businessmen, slum dwellers will no-longer have to live in shanties and they will be given pucca houses,” the PM said.
Taking a jibe at Mamata for often abusing him, Modi said the Chief Minister often gets angry at him and calls him Ravan, daitya and danav (demon).
“I want to ask you Didi that why you are so angry at me for the rise of the BJP in West Bengal,” he said, adding that lotus bloomed only in swamps.
“The mire (read misrule) that the Trinamool Government has created in Bengal has led to the blooming of lotus,” he said.
In an apparent bid to appeal to the Bengali sentiments, Modi who filled his speeches with snatches of Bengali promised introduction of vernacular medium in technical education even as he said, “The poor students who educate in Bengali language will no longer have to suffer as Bengali will be introduced as a medium of instruction in medical, engineering and other courses.”
Saying that “today’s roar from the crowd leaves no doubt that post-May 2 Bengal will witness the real poriborton,” the PM said.
He added, “Democracy that had been a casualty in Bengal during Didi’s rule will be restored in every walk of life … so that the people’s faith in administration and police restored.”
Taking potshots on Mamata for riding a scooty to State Secretariat Nabanna as a mark of protest against rising fuel prices, Modi said, “I was worried that you might not get a fall … or else you would start attacking the State of origin of the scooty (where it was manufactured).”
He also mocked at the Chief Minister for leaving her home constituency Bhawanipore and moving to Nandigram. “ One wonders why you diverted your scooty to Nandigram … okay if you want your scooty to fall at Nandigram then what can anyone do,” he said.
Returning Mamata’s “outsider” salvo Modi said the BJP has been repeatedly attacked for bringing in “outsiders” “but I must say that humanists like Tagore and Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose would never have liked this narrative … consider for once who founded the Congress (AO Hume) from which the TMC was born and who were the founders of Marxist-Leninist-Maoist philosophy … If they are not outsiders then how can the BJP be a party of outsiders when its DNA is inspired by Bengali stalwarts like Syama Prasad Mukherjee … I must say the BJP is the party of Bengal and Bengalis.”
The TMC supremo has often attacked the national BJP leaders for camping in Bengal as “outsiders who have no sense of Bengali culture and heritage.”
Referring to remarks that he was always backing his “friends” the Prime Minister said, “I am brought up in poverty and so poor people are my friends and so all my schemes are directed towards them … I will continue to support my friends come what may.”
Attacking the Chief Minister for raising Khela Hobey (a game is in the offing) slogan (that many a critic call a message threatening electoral violence) the Prime Minister said, “I have known Didi for ages. She is not the same person who raised her voice against the Left. She speaks someone else’s language now and is being remote-controlled.” The PM added “There will be no khela ahead, the khela (game) for the TMC is over … TMC’s Khel Khatom.”
Monday, 08 March 2021 | Saugar Sengupta | Kolkata
