india

Updated: Mar 06, 2019 19:16 IST

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday accused Narendra Modi of doing opportunistic politics over the dead bodies of jawans and ridiculed the prime minister for trying to paint himself as the lone patriot.

Banerjee vowed to remove the “blacklisted” Modi government from the Centre in the Lok Sabha election and ensure that even the signboards of Modi and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah cease to exist in the country.

“As you (Modi) have done nothing in the last five years, that is why you need to show missiles, bombs and dead bodies of jawans. Don’t you feel ashamed that you are doing opportunistic politics over the dead bodies of jawans? We all stand by our armed forces, for our country, but we are not with the Modi regime,” Banerjee said while addressing a program in Howrah district.

“Those who are questioning the government over the outcome of the airstrikes on Jaish training camps in Balakot are branded as ‘Pakistanis’ as if we all belong to the neighbouring country and only he (Modi) is an Indian,” she said.

The Trinamool Congress chief had recently sought evidence of the airstrike, saying that Opposition parties wanted to know the details of the Indian Air Force (IAF) operations on terror camps in Balakot.

Banerjee and the BJP have been engaged in an intense war of words, with her party hitting out at the latter for allegedly politicising the airstrikes on a Jaish-e-Mohammed training camp in Pakistan’s Balakot and the saffron party alleging that the TMC was echoing Pakistan by casting doubts about the attack.

“The BJP should stop lecturing us on patriotism. We don’t need to learn it from them. We are for the country, but we are not there to support the blacklisted Modi government at the Centre. We will remove the signboards of Modi and Amit Shah from this country. Either this country will survive or they will win. The sooner this government is defeated, the better it will be for the country,” Banerjee said.

“Everyday, the BJP leaders are surfing for my religion on websites. I want to tell them my religion is humanity. They (BJP) may not have heard about it as they have blood on their hands,” she said.

The chief minister wryly described Modi as “Gabbar Singh” and alleged that every institution and media houses in the country were being threatened by the BJP-led government. “We have seen several governments, but we have never seen such a prime minister, who is terrorising everybody in this country as if he is a Gabbar Singh.” Gabbar Singh is a fictional character, and the main antagonist of Bollywood movie ‘Sholay’.

Banerjee alleged that more than two crore people had lost their jobs and 12,000 farmers had committed suicide in the country due to demonetisation.

Accusing the BJP government of manipulating data on jobs and GDP, she said: “Modi babu knows only how to manipulate data. Five years are over... this government’s expiry date is over.”