New Delhi: Fact-checking Union Home Minister Amit Shah for criticising West Bengal’s economy and for “deliberately trying to project a dismal and gloomy picture” of the state, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday said that said he owed her a “Dhokla” for being proved wrong.
Hitting out at the BJP and Amit Shah, its chief strategist for the Bengal election in four months, Mamata Banerjee listed official data and said that she had proved that their claims about Bengal’s dismal state of industry and crime were trumped up. Citing NCRB data to state that political killings and other crimes have instead decreased in the past ten years under the TMC rule, CM Banerjee said, “Amit Shah owes me a treat. I love Dhokla and other Gujarati food.”
Addressing a press briefing, she said, “When the home minister of the country says something, it should be backed by data, facts and figures. Bengal is ahead of other states on all development indices. But Amit Shah ji deliberately tried to depict a gloomy and dismal picture of the state. I was challenged… here is my reply.”
“Kolkata has twice been accorded the ‘safest city’ tag in the country,” she added.
“According to NCRB data, political killings, other incidents of crime and rape cases have decreased during the TMC rule. BJP leaders, while pointing fingers at others, should also speak up against the Hathras rape-murder incident in Uttar Pradesh,” Banerjee said.
During his weekend visit to Bengal, Home Minister Amit Shah addressed a rally in which scores of rebels from Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress joined the BJP. He also added that there has been lawlessness and stunted progress in Bengal on “Didi’s” watch.