Kolkata. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday said her government will challenge the Calcutta High Court’s order cancelling all Other Backward Classes (OBC) certificates issued in the state since 2010 in the apex court. Banerjee said this while addressing an election rally in Sagar in South 24 Parganas district. She said the state government will appeal against the relevant order in the apex court after the summer vacation.
He said, “We do not accept the order to cancel OBC certificates. We will appeal in the apex court after the summer vacation.” The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday canceled the Other Backward Class (OBC) status given to several classes in West Bengal since 2010, which has heated up political discussions.
The court had said that including 77 categories of Muslims in the list of backward class category is “treating them like a vote bank.” Banerjee said that we respect the decision of the court, but some judges are only following the instructions of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M).
In her address at the election rally, Banerjee urged voters not to give a single vote to the BJP or any other party except the Trinamool Congress so that the opposition alliance ‘India’ can form the government at the Centre. She also accused the BJP of planning to implement the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) to ‘weaken’ the rights of people from the Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) communities.
Banerjee appealed to the families of Haj pilgrims to vote wisely as implementation of ‘Uniform Civil Code’ and Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) can deprive citizens of their right to vote. She alleged that the BJP has tried to insult women in ‘Sandeshkhali’, incite riots and snatch the reservation and employment rights of backward classes. She alleged that the sole aim of the BJP is to ‘defame Trinamool Congress and Bengal’.
The Trinamool Congress chief accused the BJP of running advertisements to ‘mislead’ people. Banerjee said that the ‘Gangasagar Mela’ should be recognised as a national fair. She claimed that her government was independently managing the annual event while the central government was not providing adequate assistance for it.
Mamata attacks PM Modi over ‘God sent’ remark
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi without naming him over his ‘God sent’ remark. Addressing an election rally at Mathurapur in the Sundarbans area of South 24 Parganas district, she claimed, “Out of fear of electoral defeat, BJP leaders are saying all kinds of things that make no sense.” In an apparent reference to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Banerjee said, “He is now calling himself the son of God. He claims that unlike all of us, he does not have biological parents. He says he is sent by God. I ask, does God send someone to plot riots, spread lies through advertisements, send people to jail in the name of NRC exercise?”
The Chief Minister said that does God send his messenger to sponsor hooliganism in the name of Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) or to stop money for 100 days of work or to stop the construction of rural houses? Does God go back on his promise of depositing Rs 15 lakh in people’s bank accounts? God cannot do such things? The Chief Minister’s statement came in the backdrop of an interview given by Prime Minister Modi to a national TV channel. In this interview, Modi had reportedly said, “As long as my mother was alive, I used to think that I was born biologically. After her death, when I look back at my experiences, I am convinced that I have been sent by God. This strength is not from my body, it has been given to me by God. That is why God also gave me the ability, strength, purity and inspiration to do this. I am nothing but a tool sent by God.” Banerjee also mocked Modi over BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra’s controversial remarks calling Lord Jagannath a “devotee of the prime minister”, which Patra later withdrew.
He said, “If Lord Jagannath is a devotee of Modi Babu, as claimed by his workers, then shouldn’t we build a temple in his name, offer prayers in front of his photo and appoint a priest for him? We can do all this, but he should not do politics by saying such things.”