Take off your spectacles of communalism, you will see India is in danger: Abhishek
‘CAA is BJP’S tool to attain political goal’
KOLKATA/GUWAHATI: As Trinamool Congress (TMC) looks to expand its footprint in the northeastern states, party national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, on Wednesday, asserted that he will do “everything possible” to remove the “corrupt” BJP government from power in Assam.
Taking a swipe at the BJP he claimed that CAA is nothing but a tool of the BJP to attain their political goal and urged people not to fall into the trap.
Addressing party workers in Assam, Banerjee set a target of winning 10 out of the 14 Lok Sabha seats in Assam in 2024. He also asserted that the TMC will form governments in both Tripura and Meghalaya.
“We (TMC) will do everything possible to remove the corrupt BJP even if I am killed. We won’t look back once we start the fight ... We will fight to evict BJP in two years in the next LS polls ... I won’t budge till we win in Assam. I will reach every place whenever I am needed,” Banerjee, who paid a visit to Kamakhya Temple earlier in the day, said.
Mocking at PM Modi’s commonly used term of “double engine government” to mean same party government at the state and the Centre, he said it meant “Double chors (thieves) – looting the states as well as Centre” and criticised the saffron party for price rise and use of agencies like the CBI and ED to scare opposition leaders. Debunking the myth of “Achhe Din”, he said, “The BJP government is busy making movies tax free, and hiking petrol prices. They are hiking the price of essential medicines, and making movies tax free. The Assam CM is going watching movies, while the common man keeps suffering”.
“BJP thinks that it will scare us (TMC) like they did to the current Assam CM by using the CBI and ED. Congress can be scared, but TMC is not like this,” he said.
Speaking about CAA, Banerjee said: “TMC has opposed the CAA and will continue to do so. Anyone who is a citizen of India and is casting their vote in the elections, how can he be given citizenship once again,” he wondered, urging “not to fall into the trap”.
He added: “Take off your spectacles of communalism, you will see that it is India that is in danger.”
He said: “Amit Shah is silent on the CAA issue in Assam and raises it in Bengal. CAA was passed in Parliament in December 2019.
The Centre is taking more than two-and-a-half years to frame the laws and again in October 2021 it has urged to extend the deadline.”
Banerjee inaugurated the TMC party office and held meetings with TMC leaders including Sushmita Dev, party MP and Ripun Bora. Leaders and workers from various parties joined Trinamool on the day.
Criticising the BJP Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma he said: “Every time he goes to New Delhi his photograph with folded hands is published. Why can’t he stand up straight and talk to the BJP leaders? Is it because of the CBI cases against him?”
Banerjee said the hopes of the people in Assam were shattered with an increase in unemployment and a complete breakdown of education, economy and healthcare infrastructure in Assam.
Asked whether he had come to Assam to break Congress, he said: “Throughout the country the Congress had failed to fight the BJP. We have not come here to break the Congress or BJP, our purpose is to raise our voice against the incompetent government which failed to meet the aspirations of the people.”
He set a target of winning 10 out of 14 Lok Sabha seats in Assam in 2024