Would the Trinamool have shown the same “indifference if Anandapur fire victims belonged to a particular community,” Union home minister Amit Shah asked on Saturday, addressing a BJP workers’ meet in Barrackpore near Kolkata.
His barb at Bengal’s ruling party came a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced compensation for the victims of the fire that singed two godowns including one used by the fast-food chain Wow! Momo.
The exact death toll is still not clear as mangled and skeletal human remains were found after the fire that erupted in the early hours of Monday.
Police have arrested three people so far over the fire, including two staff of the fast-food chain who were held for alleged negligence.
The fire was not an accident but the result of the Trinamool government’s corruption, Shah said on Saturday.
He questioned why the factory owners had not yet been arrested and wondered whether their “proximity” to the ruling party was the reason.
“Has the administration completely ceased to exist in Bengal,” Shah asked.
He declared that the Mamata Banerjee government, “which provides shelter to infiltrators, is certain to go in the upcoming Bengal elections”.
The BJP would bag over 50 per cent vote share and secure a huge majority in the Bengal Assembly election, Shah said.
“The way infiltration is taking place in West Bengal, it has become a security issue for the entire country. Even after court orders, the TMC government is not giving land to the BSF for border fencing because infiltrators are its vote bank,” he alleged.
He claimed that the administration and police in the state were not stopping illegal migrants, who were being sent across the country using fake documents.
He accused the Trinamool of threatening the Matua and Namasudra communities, many of whom have crossed into India from Bangladesh over decades.
“I want to assure them they have nothing to fear,” he said. “No one can touch your votes.”
Alleging that corruption had been institutionalised in Bengal, Shah challenged Banerjee to prove her seriousness about the menace by denying tickets to “tainted ministers” in the Assembly polls.
Shah also accused the TMC of opposing a discussion on Vande Mataram in Parliament to “appease infiltrators”, and called upon voters to “uproot” Mamata’s regime and establish a “government of patriots and nationalists” in Bengal.