Amit Shah Accuses Mamata Banerjee Of Blocking ‘Namami Gange’
The Union Home Minister Amit Shah has accused Mamata Banerjee led government in West Bengal for not implementing ‘Namami Gange Programme’ in the State and promised to bring Sagar Island in South 24-parganas district in the global tourist map.
‘Namami Gange Programme’, is an Integrated Conservation Mission, approved as a ‘Flagship Programme’ by the Union Government in June 2014 with a budget outlay of approximately Rs 20,000 crore. The main objective of the project is to deal with pollution, conservation and rejuvenation of the National River Ganga starting from Gangotri in Uttarakhand.
Speaking to the media persons after visiting the Kapil Muni Ashram at Gangasagar, Shah said, “There is a saying ‘har tirtha baar baar..Gangasagar ek baar’. Today I am honoured to be here. But I felt sad to see the infrastructure here. It is not up to the mark. Today, I would like to promise that after forming the government in Bengal, we will bring this place on the international tourist map.”
He said, “Under the leadership of PM Modi, ‘Namami Gange’ was successfully started from Gangotri but unfortunately it stopped here in Bengal (hinting at Mamata for blocking central schemes). But we will certainly implement it once we form the government here.”
Earlier on Thursday, he visited Bharat Sevashram Sangha in Kolkata and interacted with the monks. “BJP and the central government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi are committed to follow the footsteps of Swami Pranavananda, founder of Bharat Sevashram Sangha. Syama Prasad Mukherjee was inspired by Swami Pranavananda and due to his inspiration, Bengal was saved during partition otherwise it could have gone to Bangladesh.”
The Home Minister who is on a two-day political tour of poll-bound West Bengal from Thursday will also launch the fifth and final phase of the BJP’s ‘Poriborton Yatra’ from the South 24 Parganas district. He will also schedule to have lunch with the family members of the refugee’s family at Narayanpur village in the district.
Political experts feel that lunch with refugees could be Shah’s well-planned attempt to appease them over delay in the implementation of Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
He will also take part in a road-show at Namkhana village under Kakdwip sub division in South 24-Parganas district.
Struggling with the ‘outsiders’ tag and to ‘polarise Hindu votes’, Amit Shah has left no stone unturned to project BJP as a better ‘Bangaliana’ face of Bengal ahead of the 2021 Assembly Polls in the state.
Shah on many occasions has requested the people in Bengal to fulfill their responsibilities in restoring the pride of the state which was the centre of spiritual and religious awakening in India.
The consistent effort of Mamata Banerjee to keep her party’s ‘Bangaliana’ strategy against ‘outsider BJP’ has forced the central BJP leadership to craft their campaigns in Bengal in the line of Swami Vivekananda, Rabindra Nath Tagore, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Bharat Sevashram Sangha, ‘Puranas’ (religious texts), Swami Pranavananda, Sri Aurobindo’s vision and ideologies.
Shah who had put his shoulder to the wheel of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s campaign too felt that in recent years Mamata is trying to open a new front, apart from non-Bengali Hindu and Muslim vote share, to polarise Bengali vote to some extent to derail BJP’s game plan ahead of the upcoming Assembly polls in 2021.
