Kolkata, March 28 – Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee should explain why West Bengal is the only state in the entire country where the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise has faced so many difficulties, leading the Supreme Court to ultimately order judicial adjudication, Union Home Minister Amit Shah questioned on Saturday.
“The revision exercise has been completed in a total of 14 states, including those ruled by the opposition. The SIR has also been completed in two other states heading towards elections – Tamil Nadu and Kerala – both of which are ruled by the opposition.
“Nowhere else has the revision exercise faced so many obstacles. Why did the Supreme Court have to order a judicial adjudication only in West Bengal? This is because the district magistrates in West Bengal were not acting impartially. Mamata Banerjee should explain why the SIR has become an issue only in the state ruled by her,” Shah said while addressing the media on the occasion of the release of the 'White Paper' against the Trinamool Congress government, which the BJP has described as the “chargesheet of the people.”
The Union Home Minister also accused Chief Minister Banerjee of unnecessarily making an issue out of the Election Commission of India (ECI)’s decision to transfer, replace, and depute bureaucrats and police officers to other states.
“The ECI transfers officers before elections all over the country. This is nothing new. However, in West Bengal, the majority of the officers operate at the behest of the ruling party. So the transfer rate is high in West Bengal. This time, the violence in this state during Ram Navami has decreased because of the change in officers,” he said.
According to him, the only reason why Mamata Banerjee and the ruling Trinamool Congress had opposed the SIR so vehemently was that they wanted to protect illegal infiltrators by retaining their names in the voters’ list so that the party could rule the state for another five years.
“But this dream of Trinamool Congress will never be fulfilled,” the Union Home Minister said.
He also accused the Chief Minister of playing imaginary victim cards before any election. “As soon as the elections come, Mamata Banerjee either breaks her leg or falls ill. She seeks people's sympathy by showing some illness or another. But that ploy will not work out this time,” Shah said.
He also said that Mamata Banerjee’s allegations that Bengalis in India are in danger, are also politically motivated.
“She is trying to confuse people by projecting Bangladeshi infiltrators as Bengali-speaking Indians. Those who enter India illegally from Bangladesh also speak Bengali. No one in this state needs to worry. But we are firmly resolved to find out the infiltrators and expel them from the country,” he said.
