Was President not invited to Parliament inaugural as she belongs to SC/ST community, asks TMC’s Abhishek

PTI, May 26, 2023, 10:54 AM IST

TMC general secretary Abhishek Banerjee voiced the party’s “strong” protest against the Narendra Modi government for not inviting President Droupadi Murmu to the inauguration of the new Parliament building.

Former president Ram Nath Kovind too had not been invited by the Modi government to the foundation lying programme of the new Parliament House three years ago, he said.

“Can you imagine that the president of India has not been invited to the inauguration of the new Parliament building? Because she is a representative of the SC/ST community? Her name is not on the invitation.

“This is not done. We strongly protest against this … The BJP cannot get away with doing whatever it likes,” Banerjee said at a rally in Purulia.

He said the new Parliament building entailed an expense of Rs 20,000 crore. With that amount 12 lakh houses could have been built in Bengal and two crore people could have been given employment. But the state is yet to get Rs 1.15 lakh crore dues from the Centre because of the “vindictive attitude” of Modi government, which wants to discriminate against Bengal, he claimed.

Due to the Centre’s “step-motherly treatment” 11 lakh deserving people are yet to get their money as beneficiaries of central projects, the TMC MP said.

Banerjee resumed his mass outreach campaign ‘Trinamool-e Nabojowar’ (new wave in Trinamool) after being summoned by CBI in the school jobs scam from Bankura district on Monday. He suspended it for two days after being summoned by the CBI in connection with the school jobs scam.

He had launched the two-month-long campaign from the last week of April in Coochbehar district.

The TMC leader accused BJP of doing politics with the death of 40 central force jawans at Pulwama in Jammu and Kashmir in 2019.

“It is not me who says this. The then J and K governor Satya Pal Malik recently said BJP fought the 2019 Lok Sabha polls on the bodies of the soldiers and no proper investigation was done. Will you vote for such a party which has no concern for people?” he said.

Accusing the prime minister of acting whimsically, the TMC leader said he had demonetised Rs 500 and Rs 1000 currency notes in 2016 and the government has now scrapped Rs 2,000 denomination notes.

“Now people of the country are again scrambling to return the Rs 2000 currency notes, while Narendra Modi is busy travelling,” he said.

He alleged that BJP MP from Purulia, Jyotirmay Mahato has not done anything for the people and accused him and other MPs of the saffron party from the state of conspiring to stop central funds to it.

“Have you ever heard of BJP MPs from Bengal meeting any central minister for any pro-people step, to bring Rs 50 crore or Rs 100 crore package from the Centre? You will only see them conspiring to stop the central fund to run projects like the 100 days’ work, Awas Yojana and Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan which hits the common man and the poor hard,” he said.

Continuing his tirade, Banerjee said after the BJP was voted to power in 2019 and the price of LPG has increased to Rs 1200 per cylinder from Rs 400 earlier. “People are paying a penalty of Rs 800 for every cylinder for voting for BJP,” he said.

In contrast the Mamata Banerjee government in West Bengal has implemented a slew of social welfare initiatives like Lakshmir Bhandar (for women), Students Credit Card scheme, Kanyashree schemes (for girl students) among others to assist the poor, the women and marginalised sections.

“We (TMC) are a humane government in contrast to the inhumane one by BJP at the Centre,” he quipped.

Urging the people to change the BJP government at Centre in the 2024 Lok Sabha poll, he said “press the EVM button to replace the PM who wants to remote control everything.”

He also dared the CBI to arrest him if it has any proof against him of corruption or misconduct.