Mamata Banerjee on Friday squarely placed the blame of the worsening Covid-19 outbreak in Bengal — clearly in correlation to the intense, extensive campaign for the eight-phase mega Assembly elections in the state — on the BJP and alleged outsiders mobilised in large numbers for the saffron camp’s rallies.
The chief minister said her party would appeal to the Election Commission to ban the entry of alleged outsiders without a negative RT-PCR test report for Covid-19.
Addressing four rallies in Nadia and North 24-Parganas, Mamata said repeatedly that the Trinamul Congress would put forward the demand before the commission so that the criterion was applied, especially, to the badly hit states at the earliest.
In all her rallies, Mamata lambasted the BJP for not only the “abject failure” by the Centre to curb the renewed surge in the outbreak but also for allegedly subjecting Bengal to the current situation by throwing Covid-19 caution to the wind for its campaign.
“The Narendra Modi government neglected Covid-19, with only a view on these elections, which actually increased the positive cases across the country,” said Mamata.
In her first rally of the day at Nabadwip, she alleged that the BJP had been bringing in countless “outsiders” to not only bolster its poll campaign but also to provide labour for Modi’s mega meetings, which require extra infrastructure.
“People from other states, which are hit hard by a fresh spate of Covid-19 cases are coming freely to Bengal to erect pandals for the Prime Minister’s public meetings,” said the chief minister.
“These people are spreading Covid-19 rampantly here, exposing our people to grave danger. We will appeal to the commission to ensure that whoever comes from an outside state should get the RT-PCR test done, and is allowed to enter Bengal only with a negative certificate. Nobody should be allowed in prior to this test,” she added, while repeatedly appealing adherence to Covid-19 safety protocols to the masses.
Blaming the BJP-ruled Centre, Mamata said the Modi government should have made better use of the five-month period of relative relief in the pandemic till about the first week of March.
“There had been a steady drop in Covid-19 cases. There was no great spike during those five or six months (from late October last year). During this time, Narendra Modi could have administered the vaccine widely to people,” she said.
“They knew that Covid-19 was here to stay for at least two years. But they did not vaccinate people en masse…. Then, they compounded the problem with this outsider mess,” she added.
The chief minister asserted that Bengal was yet to climb back into the 10 worst affected states — it is currently 11th — but Bengal was now unlikely to escape the pan-India spike.
“How long will we be able to resist the surge? The BJP is bringing in tens of thousands of people for their political purposes. They are occupying hotels, guesthouses.... doing as they please, as if there’s no pandemic,” she said.
“Nobody there has taken a Covid-19 test. Central forces are also coming for election duty from states badly hit, like Delhi and Maharashtra. Many of them are also Covid-19 positive,” she added.
Mamata said she had no objection to Modi visiting the state as Prime Minister, or to the infrastructure necessary for his programmes.
“But his party should engage local people to erect these pandals and whatnot for him, that too after the necessary Covid-19 tests. Why are people from Gujarat being brought in to do even that? Why are people from Uttar Pradesh being brought in? Why are people from Rajasthan and Jharkhand engaged?” she asked.
The Trinamul chief also accused Modi of politicising the nation’s vaccination drive.
“Such a long time ago, we had submitted a written appeal seeking permission for Covid-19 vaccination through the state infrastructure…. We would have done it free of cost,” she said.
“But it is not clear why the permission was not granted. We planned to begin vaccination free of cost as long as stocks were available. We have begun this process,” she added.