Sambit Patra Accuses Mamata Banerjee of Undermining Democracy, Aiding Infiltration in Bengal

 BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra on Saturday hit out at West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee and the Trinamool Congress government, alleging that they are undermining democracy and the Constitution in the state.

The BJP leader said that at times, their actions make one wonder whether West Bengal is truly a part of India or not, alleging that Banerjee’s intention is to push Bengal towards “Banga-Bhang.”

He claimed that Bangladeshi infiltration is continuing through 72 sensitive points in the state, and despite repeated letters and meetings with the Border Security Force, the CM refuses to provide land for fencing.

Patra, addressing a press conference here, accused Mamata of protecting the illegal Rohingyas and, attempting to win elections on the basis of the number of Bangladeshi infiltrators.

Patra asserted that Bengal is the land from where the chant of Vande Mataram once resonated, it has been a land of spirituality, penance, austerity, and Yagya, and alleged that Banerjee has turned it into a situation resembling 'Banga-Bhang,' saying that if one remembers the incident of 1905, when the British attempted to divide Bengal.

He mentioned that the ill-intentioned move was also a result of appeasement, as the British sought appeasement and wanted to divide Bengal into two parts, and in the present day, "it would not be an exaggeration to say that on the foundation of appeasement, the present government is attempting under the CM to isolate Bengal". He alleged that whatever constitutional processes are followed in the country, the TMC government is striking at all those processes within the state.

The CM, he alleged, is trying to obstruct the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls through unconstitutional means and violence, with the situation becoming so alarming that Booth Level Officers (BLOs) in the state were pushed to the point of suicide.

Referring to media reports, Patra said that in the Jadavpur Assembly constituency, BLO Ashok Das was allegedly threatened by TMC workers that if the names of infiltrators were removed, his family would be harmed, and being distressed by these threats, he had committed suicide, the BJP leader added.

He alleged that an illegal citizenship racket is operating in which Rohingyas and Bangladeshis are being granted citizenship in exchange for money ranging from Rs 10,000 to Rs 10 lakh.

Patra strongly attacked the opposition, over the TMC's allegedly sponsored violence and protests in West Bengal, the attack on a leading daily by Arvind Kejriwal’s AAP government in Punjab, and the derogatory remarks against women made by a Congress MLA close to Rahul Gandhi in Madhya Pradesh.