Kolkata: Union minister Prakash Javadekar on Saturday said West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s call to ‘oust BJP’ was a “daydream” and it showed her “frustration and despair” at the growing support for the party.
However, Trinamoool Congress hit back saying that BJP was scared after seeing Friday’s massive turnout at the chief minister’s rally and her popularity. “Even Prime Minister Narendra Modi does not have so much popularity,” TMC secretary general Partha Chatterjee said.
Commenting on Banerjee’s call at the rally on Friday to oust BJP from the country for its “failure on all fronts”, Javadekar said, “Modiji has the connect with the poor people of the country. So the poor is with us. We are getting stronger by the day, but we want to be humble”.
He said Banerjee’s tirade against the party “only demonstrated her frustration and despair as a growing number of people are coming to the BJP’s fold every day in West Bengal”. “Her campaign to dislodge Modiji is a daydream,” he said.
He alleged that her only agenda was to speak against the BJP and the prime minister and also accused her of practising “divisive politics”.
“What is the most worrisome feature is that Mamataji is dividing societies, she is dividing communities,” he claimed.
“This is not acceptable. Communal harmony is the essence of democracy. It is important in democracy,” the HRD Minister said.
He claimed that her regime was spreading poverty across West Bengal instead of distributing prosperity which was the motto of Centre.
Javadekar also slammed the TMC government, accusing it of “doing politics” with education.
“Education is not a political agenda, it is a national agenda. Education should be the top priority of all political parties,” Javadekar said at a programme here.
“When we organise inter-state meets, West Bengal is at times absent. Everybody must participate (in such meets). I hope good sense will prevail,” he said.
However, Chatterjee, who is also the state education minister, accused the Modi government of “safronising education” system in the country. “We condemn their (Modi government) move to saffronise education,” he said.
On Javadekar’s charge that at times, the state was absent at inter-state meets, Chatterjee retorted, “Our officers had attended all such meetings and presented West Bengal’s view”.
He also criticised the union minister for accusing Banerjee of dividing the people and said, “It is the BJP and its other organisations which are dividing the people on communal lines”. (PTI)
