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In Asansol, Mamata pays Modi back in kind: I'm not your domestic help

Asad Ali | Updated on: 10 April 2016, 13:09 IST

The football ground at Budha More, Asansol, went from a sweltering, empty dust bowl to a packed arena in minutes as Mamata 'Didi' Banerjee took the stage to address an election rally on 8 April.

The speech was a potent combination of tugging at the voter's heartstrings with poetry, snapping at Narendra Modi's accusations that her TMC equals "Terror, Maut and Corruption", and highlighting Trinamool's developmental work in the area. She topped it off by mentioning how she leaves most of her important work, including filing of nomination papers, for Fridays – a not so subtle trumpeting of her pro-Muslim credentials. Clearly, Mamata knew her audience: there were a lot of people from 'Rail Paar', a region dominated by Muslims who support the Trinamool.

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Though local TMC legislator Moloy Ghatak and councillor Tapas Banerjee were also present, the rally was a Mamata show all the way. She launched a scathing counter-attack on the prime minister, accusing him of, among other things, talking like an RSS functionary or a BJP mouthpiece, and reminding him to mind his language. Modi had delivered a caustic speech the day before in Asansol, taking jibes at Mamata and saying the TMC stood for "Terror, Maut and Corruption".

Photo: Asad Ali/ Catch News

"It doesn't befit the prime minister of a country to talk like this," Mamata said, hastening to remind the gathering that she has never made "personal comments" against Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Neither has she said anything disparaging about Sonia Gandhi or even Buddhadeb Bhattacharya despite their differences. "I am not your domestic help," she thundered, referring to Modi.

She said it wouldn't be nice if she, in turn, were to call the BJP Bhoyanok Jaali Party (dangerously fake party). "You can put me in jail, I don't care," she added, to loud applause.

Modi is talking like an RSS functionary. It doesn't befit the prime minister to talk like this

To Modi's Saradha scam references, Mamata asked the gathering, "Saradha manifested in 2000. Who was in power then? And in 2001?" She counted to 2010 to raucous cries of "CPM" from the crowd.

Mamata accused the prime minister of trying to divide Bengal. "During the Lok Sabha election, he had said those from the other side, from Bangladesh, would be taken away." But now, she continued, "he is meeting people from Darjeeling and Cooch Behar who want to divide Bengal."

Photo: Asad Ali/ Catch News

Mamata scoffed at the allegation of the TMC turning a blind eye to Bengal's development, and went on to highlight her government's main achievements. "If not everything, some of those achievements must be mentioned," she said. The list included making Asansol a district; providing medical facilities in the region, and the Ondal airport nearby; setting up the Kazi Nazrul University; introducing reservation for Muslim and the Kanyashree scheme for young women.

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For good measure, the narration of the achievements was interspersed with reminders of how people like Praveen Togadia are banned from Bengal and how the BJP is "shamelessly supporting" the Left-Congress combine. As for the CPM, "the Marx bit has gone out of their party. It isn't comrade anymore. It's Cong-red, laal-Congress!" She went on: the CPM is "selling out" to the Congress and the Congress to the CPM, while the BJP is looking to sneak in some votes.

Photo: Asad Ali/ Catch News

Then came a barrage of charges against the Modi regime: attempts to cut or stop funding of ICDS scheme and some projects in Jangalmahal. "They just talk big but don't give money when it's needed... it's easy to do all the talk, much harder to actually work."

Mamata concluded her speech with a secular sign off: "La ilaha illalah", "Vahiguru ji ka khalsa, vahiguru ji ki fateh", and the rather staid, "God is one".

As a postscript, Mamata did ask the crowd if she could expect some votes on 11 April.

Edited by Mehraj D. Lone

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First published: 10 April 2016, 13:09 IST
 
Asad Ali @asadali1989

Asad Ali is another cattle class journalist trying to cover Current affairs and Culture when he isn't busy not saving the world.