Mamata Banerjee said on Wednesday that those who prioritised politics during a pandemic were the “biggest danger to the society” as she launched a broadside against the BJP for its attacks on the Bengal government over alleged failures in the fight against Covid-19
The Bengal chief minister — otherwise among Narendra Modi’s and the Sangh Parivar’s fiercest critics — had been exercising restraint since the pandemic assumed serious proportions in India, keeping politics out and steering firmly clear of launching attacks.
“The BJP has simply not stopped bringing politics even into the pandemic. They do not seem to know this is not the time nor the place for politics. The only priority at this time has to be standing by the people and helping out…. Those who prioritise politics even at such a time, they are the biggest danger to society,” said Mamata.
“One incident in one out of so many police stations in the state, the BJP leaps in joy, thinks of it as victory, victory in maligning Bengal across the nation… humiliating the state makes them happy. They are like vultures, eagerly looking for corpses to feed on. That’s all they have been doing,” she told a news conference in the evening at the state secretariat.
Quoting Abraham Lincoln, the Trinamul Congress chief said: “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.”
“How much longer, do you think can you survive solely on peddling lies?” she asked.
Mamata said her government had been going out of its way to beat the pandemic, and that she, along with most seniors and those on the frontline, had been working between 6am and 3am.
“At the end of such long, hard days, when we get home and see all they did all day was spread bitterness, bitterness and bitterness…. It feels so bad…. I am really hurt, really shocked,” she said at Nabanna.
Mamata alleged the BJP had created four zones for making her Covid-19 war difficult. “Like our red, orange and green zones for taking on the pandemic, they made four zones. Zones A, B, C and D. Zone D is for destructive work. Zone C is for confrontation. Zone B is to block all good work. Zone A is to avoid helping out.”
“You are simply incapable of work. You can’t even sweep the streets. What happened to the Swachh Bharat brigade? The game is not that easy. If they are so jobless, they should help sweep our streets. It is not lowly. I have done it myself,” she added.
She then threatened to out “evidence” of the BJP’s alleged strategy to malign the state government.
“I have evidence from videoconferences, audio conferences. I can give documentary evidence. ‘We will not be part of the good work, if we find even one flaw, we will go to town’…. One-sided, some of you (in the media), only listening to the BJP, becoming carriers of a negative, destructive virus,” she said.
Mamata said everything was being accounted for and the scores would be settled later. However, BJP state chief Dilip Ghosh remained defiant and said: “Is the secretariat now a Trinamul office? Using Nabanna to only abuse the BJP. It is condemnable.”