Mamata: Condemn people who keep ‘insulting Bengal & Bengalis’

SOUMITRA NANDI, MP, 6 Jan 2023, Gangasagar: Claiming that the Vande Bharat Express was attacked in neighbouring Bihar and not in Bengal, Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo Mamata Banerjee, who was on a tour of Gangasagar, said that she condemned those who keep “insulting Bengal and Bengalis” by spreading fake news. 

The TMC supremo remarked that the train may have been at the receiving end of public ire as it had not been started in Bihar and said that people in Bengal should not be blamed for it. She also said since Bihar was not a BJP-ruled state, it could have been the reason behind the deprivation. 

She reiterated that Bihar also has the right to avail of the services of Vande Bharat Express. “The stone pelting at Vande Bharat Express has taken place in Bihar. The CCTV footage of the Indian Railways has proved this. The people of Bihar may be angry as they have not got such a train yet. 

Bihar is not a BJP-ruled state and that may be the reason behind the deprivation. In a democracy, a section of people has the right to protest, but the entire state of Bihar should not be insulted for this. But why is Bengal being blamed for the act of vandalism?,” Banerjee said at the helipad at Gangasagar before leaving for Kolkata on Thursday afternoon. 

Blaming a section of the media and the BJP for trying to spread false news and defame the state, Banerjee said: “Stones were pelted at the Vande Bharat train in Bihar and not in West Bengal. We will take legal action against those media outlets that telecast fake news of the incident taking place in West Bengal that has brought a bad name to our state.” 

Maintaining that the train was not a “new one” and most coaches were old and were repainted, Banerjee said: “Vande Bharat is not a new train. It is just an old train refurbished with a new engine. Several new rakes have been withdrawn from Bengal,” she remarked. Banerjee said during her tenure as the Railway minister, as many as 100 new trains were introduced in Bengal. 

After that, in the last 11 years, Bengal has not got a single new train except the Vande Bharat Express. Banerjee’s remarks on Vande Bharat assume significance with the Railways declaring that the stone pelting incident took place in Bihar. The Vande Bharat Express was on Tuesday pelted with stones for the second consecutive day. It was inaugurated on December 30, and commercial services on the route started on January 1. 

Railway authorities on Thursday claimed they have identified those who threw stones at the train. Eastern Railways CPRO Ekalabya Chakraborty stated that after scanning through the video footage, it was found that Monday’s stone-pelting incident on Vande Bharat Express took place in Malda district and Tuesday’s happened in Bihar’s Kishanganj district and efforts were underway to nab the perpetrators. 

“After scanning the footage, it was found that the first incident took place in the Malda district of West Bengal and the second in the Kishanganj district of Bihar. Further scanning of available footage is underway to pinpoint the exact location and identify the perpetrators,” he informed. 

FIRs have been lodged in both cases and an awareness campaign has begun to prevent a recurrence of such incidents, a Railway official said. The stone-pelting incidents have sparked a slugfest between the BJP and the ruling Trinamool Congress. 

https://www.millenniumpost.in/kolkata/mamata-condemn-people-who-keep-insulting-bengal-bengalis-504528