Kolkata, May 29 (PTI) West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday said that the BJP-led government at the Centre is yet to declare the birthday of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose as a national holiday, which has belied due honour to the national hero like him.
Banerjee, also the Trinamool Congress supremo, said this before started walking in a roadshow from Shyambazar five-point crossing to the ancestral house of Swami Vivekananda at Simla area in north Kolkata.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s roadshow took the same route on Tuesday.
Both Modi and Banerjee paid floral tributes to Netaji at his statue in Shyambazar.
“The prime minister yesterday played to the gallery by garlanding the statue of Netaji but failed to recognise his birthday, January 23, by not declaring it as a national holiday. But our government has already declared it as a state holiday,” she said.
“I strongly register my protest against this failure of the Centre. I salute national heroes like Netaji,” she said and chanted ‘Jai Hind’ slogans coined by him.
Had Netaji been not there, India would not have become independent, Banerjee asserted.
He also conceptualised the planning commission which has been abolished, she said.
The Narendra Modi government disbanded the Planning Commission in 2014 and formed the Niti Aayog.
Banerjee said, “The disappearance of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose has not been unravelled and remains a mystery. All the files relating to this have been released by the state government. The Centre did nothing”.
She also claimed that at Modi’s roadshow here on Tuesday, people were brought from outside Kolkata.
“But in our roadshow, all participants are residents of the city and especially from north Kolkata,” the TMC supremo said.
Banerjee walked down the around two km stretch of archetypal north Kolkata neighbourhood accompanied by ministerial colleagues Shashi Panja and Firhad Hakim.
A large number of bystanders stood at both sides of the road and several clicked photographs. Banerjee often paused to greet them, some of who are elderly people.
Her roadshow was organised in support of Trinamool Congress candidate from the Kolkata North constituency Sudip Bandopadhyay.
On reaching the ancestral house of Swami Vivekananda, she paid obeisance to the great monk by garlanding his statue in front of the house.
She held conversations with several monks of the Ramakrishna Mission before departing the venue.
Banerjee last week accused certain monks of the Ramakrishna Mission and Bharat Sevashram Sangha of working for the BJP, creating a controversy. PTI dc NN
This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.