BJP's 'charge sheet' against TMC over infiltration gets 'what about Pahalgam' reply

Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday launched a scathing attack on the ruling Trinamool Congress government by releasing a "charge sheet" against the latter. He said that the forthcoming polls in Bengal is a battle not only for the state but also for the country's security, slamming Mamata Banerjee for allowing infiltrators to enter India easily. Shortly after, the Trinamool Congress countered, accusing the saffron party of trying to polarise the people of Bengal while flagging the Pahalgam massacre and the Red Fort blast.

"Mamata Didi has always played the politics of the victim card. Sometimes she talks about her injury, sometimes she abuses the Election Commission. But the people of Bengal now understand Mamata Didi's victim-card politics very well," Shah said at a press briefing in Kolkata.

He further alleged that during the 15-year-long rule of the TMC in Bengal, the state had become the country's "principal corridor" for infiltration owing to the ruling government's "appeasement politics, corruption and political violence". Shah claimed that since infiltration through BJP-ruled Assam had "almost come to an end", Bengal remained the sole remaining route that infiltrators were using to enter India and move across states.

"The Bengal election is important not only for Bengal but for the entire country. The security of the entire country is, in a way, linked to the Bengal election," Shah said.

The Home Minister claimed that the Siliguri Corridor – the narrow strip connecting the Northeast to the rest of India – was being endangered due to the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC government's appeasement politics.

"The TMC government has not provided land for erecting fences in bordering areas, despite several attempts to convince the state government. This is because the TMC wants to create a vote bank of infiltrators," he alleged.

"I want to ask the people of Bengal – should those infiltrators who have been allowed to stay here be given the right to vote? I want to make it clear from the BJP's side that we will not only remove infiltrators from the voter list, but we will remove each and every illegal immigrant from the country," he said at the briefing.

Meanwhile, hours after the Home Minister's press conference, senior TMC leaders Bratya Basu, Kirti Azad and Mahua Moitra, hit back at the BJP at their press briefing, saying the charge sheet was actually against the people of Bengal.

"Shah should first answer about violence in Manipur, which has bled continuously for the past three years," Moitra said.

Basu rejected Shah's infiltration remark and said that the BJP rules in most border states. "BJP rules in the Centre. It rules 15 states and most border states through which infiltration is happening. Amit Shah himself is the Union Home Minister. So what exactly has he been waiting for?"

He also took a dig at the Election Commission of India, asking why the "BJP-controlled" body has failed to publish names of foreign nationals on the electoral rolls of the country.

The Bengal Education Minister further claimed that the BJP wanted to "blur the line" between Bengalis and Bangladeshis so they can "import their hateful Assam-style detention camp model" into the eastern state.

Moitra alleged that the Leader of the Opposition in Bengal, Suvendu Adhikari, has multiple charge sheets against him, and yet he walks free.

"Manipur has bled for three years. The Parliament was attacked under BJP's watch. (As many as) 26 people were killed in Pahalgam. Was a single person caught ?" she asked.

The Lok Sabha MP also pointed out the Red Fort blast last year that killed more than 10 people. "Home Minister controls Delhi. These are his record," she said, claiming that the BJP-ruled states are fighting within themselves.

Bengal will go to polls in two phases on April 23 and April 29, and the results will be announced on May 4.