Mamata Banerjee accuses BJP of insulting Netaji by raising 'Jai Shri Ram' slogans

Pursurah: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday lashed out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), accusing it of insulting Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose by raising ‘Jai Shri Ram’ slogans at an event to mark the icon’s 125th birth anniversary. Branding the BJP as a group of “outsiders” and “Bharat Jalao Party”, she said it has been continuously insulting the icons of Bengal, Netaji being the “latest addition to the list”. “Would you invite anyone to your house and then insult the person? Is this the culture of Bengal or our country? I would have had no problem if slogans hailing Netaji were raised. But they didn’t do that. To taunt me, they shouted slogans which had no relation to the programme. I was insulted in front of the prime minister of the country. This is their (BJP) culture,” the Trinamool Congress boss told a rally in Pursurah. Banerjee had on Saturday refused to speak at an official event attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to observe Subhas Chandra Bose’s 125th birth anniversary, after ‘Jai Shri Ram’ chants greeted her. Dubbing turncoats in her party as “betrayers”, she said those who have deserted the TMC in the run-up to the Assembly polls will never be welcomed back. “The ones who left knew they would not be getting tickets in the coming elections. It is good they exited, or else we would have thrown them out… Those who want to leave the party should do that as early as possible,” Banerjee added.