KOLKATA: Trinamool Congress on Sunday criticised BJP leaders for their “incorrect rendition” of the national anthem at Howrah’s public rally. TMC also dubbed its defections “inconsequential”.
Immediately after BJP’s rally ended, TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee posted a video on Twitter showing excerpts of the national anthem, and wrote, “Those preaching patriotism and nationalism can’t even sing our national anthem correctly. This is the party which claims to uphold India’s honour and pride! Shameful!" He then asked if the PM, Union home minister and BJP “will apologise for this anti-national act?”
State education minister Partha Chatterjee said: “Shockingly when they should have sung Jana-Gana-Mangaldayak-Jaya-Hey, they repeated Jana-Gana-Mana-Adhinayaka-Jaya-Hey. For all their patriotism, only BJP can insult national anthem.”
The video was also posted by TMC’s Rajya Sabha leader Derek O’Brien, who termed the incorrect rendition as “one more weekly blooper from the tourist gang”. Party MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar wrote, “BJP cannot even sing national anthem properly. The nation is stunned.”
Bengal BJP spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya said, “Nobody will believe so many BJP leaders on the dais did an incorrect rendition of the anthem. The allegation that all of them sang the incorrect version is baseless.”
On the defections, Trinamool MP Saugata Roy termed them to be “inconsequential”. Chatterjee, addressing party workers in Behala, said: “In this political season, the tree is shedding leaves, but the tree is unaffected. Trinamool Congress cannot be bought with money. The defectors have different priorities, it isn't for people but themselves.”
On Union home minister Amit Shah’s dynasty politics barbs, Roy said: “I do not know why he reiterates ‘bhaipo’ each time. We have never said that we are nominating Abhishek (Banerjee) as the chief minister. We want Mamata Banerjee to become the CM of West Bengal.”
Roy also denied Shah’s allegation of not sending the list of the beneficiaries for Kisan Samman Nidhi. “Let them approve the list first. We will surely send the details.”
TMC minister Chandrima Bhattacharya pointed out how Bengal's Krishak Bandhu scheme gave farmers Rs 5,000 per acre against PM-Kisan’s Rs 1,214 per acre. The state scheme, she said, benefited all farmers whereas the central scheme benefited only small and marginal farmers with up to 2 hectares of land.