Kolkata: After the Union Home Minister, Amit Shah, on Friday released “Sankalp Patra” (election manifesto) for assembly polls in West Bengal, the Trinamool Congress general secretary, Abhishek Banerjee, drew a comparison between the manifesto proposals and the promises of higher returns on investment by chit fund or Ponzi entities.
“BJP’s promises are like those made by the chit funds. Their promises have no value. The promises in the BJP’s manifesto to pay Rs 3,000 as monthly allowances to the unemployed youths and women are yet another ‘jumla’. The BJP first tried to take control of West Bengal through different central agencies. When they failed at that, they are now trying to allure women and youths with false promises of financial assistance. BJP does not believe in the federal democracy system,” Abhishek Banerjee told media persons after a couple of hours.
Shah released a manifesto in Kolkata.
Speaking on the occasion, he once again attacked the BJP and the Union government over the special intensive revision in West Bengal.
He said that before releasing the manifesto, the Union Home Minister should have first apologised to the people of West Bengal for the harassment they faced over the revision.
He added that the BJP will remain as the opposition party for the next 20 years only because of the kind of harassment that the people of West Bengal faced because of this exercise.
He also said that the BJP had past instances of forgetting promises made before elections.
“They promised to bring back black money. Nothing had happened on these lines. The country’s economy was affected by the unplanned implementation of the Goods and Services Tax. Now they are up to snatching the basic rights of the people,” Abhishek Banerjee said.
Speaking on the occasion, he also explained why the West Bengal government disapproved of the implementation of the Ayushman Bharat scheme in the state.
“We had opposed Ayushman Bharat because had we implemented it, almost 90 per cent of the people in the state would not have got the insurance benefits, because of the conditions imposed on the scheme. So we implemented the Swastha Sathi scheme, with no conditions. Anyone can avail themselves of the state’s own scheme,” said Abhishek Banerjee.
(IANS)
