NEW DELHI: The ‘pujo’ politics heat up in West Bengal as TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Friday mocked Union home minister Amit Shah’s ‘Sonar Bangla’ poll pitch with ‘where’s Sonar Gujarat and Bihar’ rhetoric, while accusing the BJP-led Centre of withholding Rs 2 lakh crore in dues and “insulting” the state’s cultural icons.Addressing the media at Vidyasagar College on the 205th birth anniversary of reformer Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, Banerjee questioned Shah for not visiting the institution, where the social reformer’s statue was vandalised during a BJP rally in 2019.”First, you should ask Amit Shah – when will you release our funds worth Rs 2 lakh crore that you owe to us? If he says AITC is lying, then ask him to choose any channel of his choice and I will come for a debate with facts and figures,” news agency PTI reported Banerjee as saying.Earlier in the day, Shah inaugurated the Durga Puja at Santosh Mitra Square in north Kolkata, where he said he prayed for the emergence of a government in Bengal that could transform the state into ‘Sonar Bangla’.Countering the claim, Banerjee alleged the BJP had failed to deliver on similar promises elsewhere. “He talks about Sonar Bangla, but did they make Sonar Bihar? Or Sonar Gujarat, Maharashtra or UP? They are using our funds in these BJP-ruled states,” he said. The TMC leader reminded Shah of the broken Vidyasagar statue still preserved inside the college. “People of Bengal gave a befitting response to those who tried to impose North Indian culture here and broke Vidyasagar’s statue,” he remarked, adding that Shah’s failure to visit Vidyasagar’s house or the college despite being nearby was “deeply saddening.”Calling the BJP “Bangla-Birodhi”, Banerjee accused its leaders of ignorance about Bengal’s heritage. “They don’t know where Rabindranath Tagore was born. They mispronounce Panchanan Barma. They are unaware of Vidyasagar, Raja Ram Mohan Roy or Khudiram Bose. We do not need to learn about Bengal’s culture from them,” he said.On Durga Puja, Banerjee recalled that Shah had once questioned the festival’s existence in Bengal. “The person inaugurating a pandal today is the same person who said five years ago that there are no Durga Pujas in Bengal. Today, that very Durga Puja has been recognised by Unesco as an Intangible Cultural Heritage site. No festival from BJP-ruled states has got such recognition,” he said.Banerjee also invoked a Calcutta high court order which set aside the deportation of six persons, including a pregnant woman from Birbhum, saying it exposed how Bengali-speaking people were allegedly targeted under central directives.Taking a swipe at Shah’s criticism of civic issues in Kolkata, Banerjee defended the state’s flood preparedness. “If we get 300 mm rainfall in four hours, naturally there will be difficulties. But in 48 hours, we bounced back. Despite the rain, Shah is moving freely across the city. That itself proves how resilient Bengal is,” he said.Contrasting the TMC’s “work on the ground” with the BJP’s “political rhetoric”, Banerjee reiterated that the state government prioritised welfare throughout the year.
